Alpha-glucosidase breaks down starch and disaccharides to glucose. Maltase, a similar enzyme that cleaves maltose, is nearly functionally equivalent.

Mechanism

Alpha-glucosidase hydrolyzes terminal non-reducing 1-4 linked alpha- glucose residues to release a single alpha- glucose molecule.Alpha-glucosidase is a carbohydrate-hydrolase that releases alpha-glucose as opposed to beta-glucose. Beta-glucose residues can be released by glucoamylase, a functionally similar enzyme...

Structure

Alpha-glucosidases can potentially be split, according to primary structure, into two families.[8] The gene coding for human lysosomal alpha-glucosidase is about 20 kb long and its structure has been cloned and confirmed...