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N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase is a mesophilic hydrolase that specifically hydrolyzes N-acetyl-glucosides. The enzyme is found across a wide variety of marine and terrestrial creatures with the primary function of breaking down oligosaccharides in the presence of water. One of the primary functions of the enzyme is to target and hydrolyze oligosaccharides containing chitin. In this chitinase function, the enzyme contributes to the ability of many organisms to break down chitin-containing molecules and subsequently digest or re-uptake environmental chitin, carbon, or nitrogen. The enzyme's crystal structure varies slightly across organisms, but is characterized by three or four domains with one active site. Across proteins, the active site entails an α-β barrel with either an arginine or tryptophan residues in the barrel pocket to bind incoming substrate.