Mannan chemical structure

In yeasts particularly, chemotaxonomy by means of application of proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy was described by Gofin and Spencer(2), and the acetolysis fingerprinting technique by Kocourek and Ballou(3) can be also used to determine the taxonomy of yeasts. These methods are based on the differences in the chemical structure of their mannan components. Similarly, serological clasification of yeasts by the use of slide agglutinin test was reported by Tsuchiya, Fukazawa and Kawakita(4). 

Analysis of the chemical structure of the mannan of a C. albicans strain, first achieved by Bishop and his co-workers, provided evidence that this mannan possesses a highly branched structure consisting of D-mannopyranosyl residues connecting with al- 2 and od- 6 linkages (22). ... 

In 1965, an important modification of the chemical structure of bakers yeast mannan was made by Ballou and his co-workers. They pointed out that the longest branching moieties of this mannan correspond to a tetraose, 0-orD-mannopyranosyl (1 - 3) 0-(x-D-mannopyranosyl (1- 2) O-oc-o-mannopyranosyl (l->2) mannose (23). In 1967, the Canadian workers and Hasenclever published the modified findings of structural analysis of the mannan of several Candida strains including those of C. albicans serotype A, C. albicans serotype B, C. tropicalis, C. stellatoidea, and C. parapsilosis, affording evidence that all mannans contain small amounts of al->3 linked D-mannopyranosyl residues in addition to the large amounts of al->2 and ocl->6 linkages (24). ... 

Such H-1 signals can be used as a fingerprint using known mannans as references (Table I) in order to identify parent yeasts isolated from rivers and lakes. This is aided by the versatility of yeasts in producing mannose-containing polysaccharides of different chemical structure (2)- In cases where spectra cannot be obtained the component sugars can sometimes be used to define the polysaccharide., ... 

Figure 3. Chemical structure NMR spectrum of the mannan from Rhodo-...

Kato, K. and Matsuda, K., Studies of the chemical structure of konjac mannan 1. Isolation and characterization of oligosaccharides from the partial hydrolyzate of the mannan, Agric. Biol Chem., 33, 1446,... 

Plants store polysaccharides as food reserve in all types of cell but primarily in special storage cells or organs such as parenchymous cells or roots, tubers, and pith. The most important of these food reserves are starches, fructans, mannans, and galactomannans. The mannans are sometimes food reserves and sometimes structural material in the plant cell wall. In animals the chief reserve polysaccharide is glycogen, which in chemical structure is much like one of the components of starch (see Part II of this chapter.). 

Figure 3 The chemical structure of the coated mannan derivative.

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