Related streptococcal and Leuconostoc mesenteroides glucansucrases are enzymes of medical and biotechnological interest. Molecular modelling has suggested that the catalytic domain contains a circularly permuted version of the (beta/alpha)(8) barrel structure found in the amylase superfamily, and site-directed mutagenesis has identified critical amino acids in this region. In this study, sequential N-terminal truncations of Streptococcus downei GTF-I showed that key amino acids are also present in the first one-third of the core domain. Mutations were introduced at Trp-344, Glu-349 and His-355, residues that are conserved in all glucansucrases and lie within a region which is a target for inhibitory antibodies. W344L, E349L and H355V substitutions were assayed for their effect on mutan synthesis and also on oligosaccharide synthesis with various accepters. It appeared that Trp-344 and His-355 are involved in the action mechanism of GTF-I; His-355 may also play a role in a binding subsite necessary for oligosaccharide and glucan elongation.