Dextrins from amylose, structure

However, evidence in favor of a true structural feature that resists the action of fcefa-amylase has come from studies of the action of debranching enzymes on amylose and its hefa-limit dextrin. Thus, by treatment with yeast isoamylase, the befa-amylolysis limit of a sample of amylose was increased from 76 to 90 , and that of amylose 6e a-limit dextrin from 6 to 77 . Treatment of amylose with pullulanase also increases the conversion of the substrate into maltose by befa-amylase to an almost quantitative value. " On the basis of these results, the anomalous linkages in amylose that resist beto-amylase action are considered to be a very small proportion of (l->6)-a-D-glucosidic linkages. 

The only example of this technique applied to the amylose component is that already described, of the action of Z-enzyme on the /3-limit dextrin. In the case of amylopectin, enzymic methods enable a distinction to be made between the proposed laminated and highly ramified structures (I and III, in Fig. 1, page 352). The method used by Peat and coworkers101 involves the successive action of /3-amylase and R-enzyme on waxy maize starch. /3-Amylolysis will degrade A-chains down to two or three units from the 6 —> 1-a-D interchain linkages. These latter linkages will protect the... 

Using results of these kinds of studies, the characteristic structure of amylose can be differentiated from that of amylopectin. Amylose has a small number of branches and crystallizes and precipitates when complexed with 1 -butanol. The iodine affinity of amylose is much greater (i.a. 18.5 to 21.1) than that of amylopectin (i.a. 0.0 to 6.6),79,152-158,163,169-174 and the iodine affinity of amylose (3-limit dextrin is similar to that of the parent amylose. The average chain length of amylose (3-limit dextrins is much larger than that of the amylopectin (3-limit dextrin.160... 

The difference in structure between amylose and amyiopectin is important when selecting the appropriate starch substrate for amylase determinations (see Chapter 21). The rate of hydrolysis is affected by structural differences in the starch. a-Amylase from the pancreas hydrolyzes internal a-l,4 glycosidic linkages. This hydrolysis results initially in the production of some maltose and a mixture of dextrins, which are subsequently hydrolyzed to maltose. The -1,6-... 

The /3-amylases in the absence of the a-amylases are incapable of degrading whole starches completely. The hydrolysis proceeds rapidly until about 50 to 55 % of the theoretical amount of maltose is produced and then very slowly until a limit of about 61 to 68% is reached (101), The solution is still viscous and the residue, called a /3-amylase limit dextrin, is unfer-mentable. The limit dextrin arises from the inability of /3-amylase to act beyond a branch point in the randomly branched amylopectin molecule and may be envisaged as a pruned amylopectin structure. In the case of potato starch, the /3-limit dextrin includes all the associated phosphate. The limit dextrin contains one end group for every 10 to 12 D-glucose residues (102), in contrast to one in every 25 or 30 residues for the original amylopectin. The initial attack of /3-amylase on amylopectin is about 20 times as fast as on amylose (103), Maltose in amounts of 53 to 62 % of the theoretical have been reported from the action of /3-amylases on amylopec-tins separated from various starches (104). When the /3-limit dextrin is cleaved by acid hydrolysis or by the action of a-amylase, the structure is opened and new chain ends are made available which can be further acted upon by i3-amylase. 

Fig. 5.11. The structure of starch (a) maltose (b) straight chain of amylose (c) branching by 1 6 linkages as in amylopectin (d) amylopectin. The dotted line shows inside it the dextrin-type molecule formed from amylopectin by the action of 8-amylase.

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