Endo-xylanases play a key role in the depolymerization of xylan and recently, they have attracted much attention owing to their potential applications on biofuels and paper industries. In this work, we have investigated the molecular basis for the action mode of xylanases 10B at high temperatures using biochemical, biophysical and crystallographic methods. The crystal structure of xylanase 10B from hyperthermophilic bacterium Thermotoga petrophila RKU-1 (TpXyl10B) has been solved in the native state and in complex with xylobiose. The complex crystal structure showed a classical binding mode shared among other xylanases, which encompasses the -1 and -2 subsites. Interestingly, TpXyl10B displayed a temperature-dependent action mode producing xylobiose and xylotriose at 20 degrees C, and exclusively xylobiose at 90 degrees C as assessed by capillary zone electrophoresis. Moreover, circular dichroism spectroscopy suggested a coupling effect of temperature-induced structural changes with this particular enzymatic behavior. Molecular dynamics simulations supported the CD analysis suggesting that an open conformational state adopted by the catalytic loop (Trp297-Lys326) provokes significant modifications in the product release area (+1,+2 and +3 subsites), which drives the enzymatic activity to the specific release of xylobiose at high temperatures. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.