Mechanisms of catalysis include catalysis by bond strain; by proximity and orientation; by active-site proton donors or acceptors; covalent catalysis and quantum tunnelling.
These contain a glutamic acid residue which, on the basis of similarities with other families of glycosyl hydrolases, probably acts as the proton donor in their catalytic mechanism.
Both mechanisms exhibit the same distance between the proton donor and the glycosidic oxygen, situating the proton donor close enough to the glycosidic oxygen for hydrogen bonding.