The Carbohydrate-Active Enzyme (CAZy) database is a comprehensive resource dedicated to enzymes that build and break down complex carbohydrates and glycoconjugates. As of September 2008, the database covers 113 glycoside hydrolase, 91 glycosyltransferase, 19 polysaccharide lyase, 15 carbohydrate esterase, and 52 carbohydrate-binding module families. These families are defined based on experimentally characterized proteins and sequences from public databases with significant similarity. The database provides protein biochemical information curated from literature and structural data, with over 6400 proteins assigned EC numbers and 700 with PDB structures. The classification system reflects structural features, evolutionary relationships, and mechanistic properties, aiding in the understanding of enzyme functions. The CAZy resource has been available for over 10 years, contributing to information dissemination and providing a nomenclature for glycobiologists. It has also been used to improve functional predictions in genome projects through expert annotation. The database is continuously updated, with new families and sequences added regularly. The CAZy website offers interactive tools for searching and analyzing CAZyme information, and future plans include further classification into subfamilies and enhanced sequence similarity search capabilities.The Carbohydrate-Active Enzyme (CAZy) database is a comprehensive resource dedicated to enzymes that build and break down complex carbohydrates and glycoconjugates. As of September 2008, the database covers 113 glycoside hydrolase, 91 glycosyltransferase, 19 polysaccharide lyase, 15 carbohydrate esterase, and 52 carbohydrate-binding module families. These families are defined based on experimentally characterized proteins and sequences from public databases with significant similarity. The database provides protein biochemical information curated from literature and structural data, with over 6400 proteins assigned EC numbers and 700 with PDB structures. The classification system reflects structural features, evolutionary relationships, and mechanistic properties, aiding in the understanding of enzyme functions. The CAZy resource has been available for over 10 years, contributing to information dissemination and providing a nomenclature for glycobiologists. It has also been used to improve functional predictions in genome projects through expert annotation. The database is continuously updated, with new families and sequences added regularly. The CAZy website offers interactive tools for searching and analyzing CAZyme information, and future plans include further classification into subfamilies and enhanced sequence similarity search capabilities.