Polysaccharide catabolism

Glycosyl transferases and O-glycosidases modify glycoproteins and are important for polysaccharide catabolism. Inhibitors of these enzymes are potential drugs in the treatment of cancer, viral infection and diabetes. There are two mechanistic classes of glycosidases, retaining and inverting." ... 

Our approach to these and similar question has been to investigate the mechanisms by which pure cultures of colon bacteria utilize individual polysaccharides in vitro, with a view to determining what factors affect the organism s decision to utilize a particular type of carbohydrate. This approach is based on the assumption that information about the specific features and limitations of polysaccharide-catabolizing systems in colon bacteria will permit us either to make predictions about the extent to which catabolism of a particular class of polysaccharides can occur in vivo or to develop specific methods for detecting metabolic states in bacteria in vivo. 

In eukaryotes, anabolic and catabolic pathways that interconvert common products may take place in specific subcellular compartments. For example, many of the enzymes that degrade proteins and polysaccharides reside inside organelles called lysosomes. Similarly, fatty acid biosynthesis occurs in the cytosol, whereas fatty... 

Carbohydrate metabolism in the organism tissues encompasses enzymic processes leading either to the breakdown of carbohydrates (catabolic pathways), or to the synthesis thereof (anabolic pathways). Carbohydrate breakdown leads to energy release or intermediary products that are necessary for other biochemical processes. The carbohydrate synthesis serves for replenishment of polysaccharide reserve or for renewal of structural carbohydrates. The effectiveness of various routes of carbohydrate metabolism in tissues and organs is defined by the availability of appropriate enzymes in them. 

Macromolecules as drug carriers may be divided into degradable and nondegradable types based on their fate within the organism. Biodegradable polymeric drug carriers are traditionally derived from natural products polysaccharides, poly(amino acids) in the hope that the body s natural catabolic mechanisms will act to break down the macromolecular structure into small,... 

In an earlier article1 on the application of enzymic techniques to the analysis of the structure of polysaccharides, the -d- and /3-D-glucans were discussed, as well as more-general aspects of the preparation and use of catabolic enzymes in such analyses. The present article describes enzymic contributions to knowledge of the structures of other polysaccharides, but an account of subsequent research on a- and jS-D-glucans is also included. 

Because the enzyme functions as a catalyst, its inhibition or inactivation may decrease the rate of a particular metabolic reaction. The reduction in the rate of this reaction may inhibit the pathway in which this reaction occurs and, in turn, result in the depletion of a product or the accumulation of precursors or intermediates. Changes in 02 or C02 exchange, pools of various metabolites, and the metabolism of glucose (both catabolism and incorporation into cell wall polysaccharides) that have been observed also support this hypothesis. 

Carbohydrates in algae and plants are often classified based on methodological discrimination. The structural carbohydrates are not water-soluble, whereas the other types of carbohydrates are water-soluble and typically extracted by hot water. In Phaeocystis five different pools of carbohydrates can be distinguished. Like all algal and plant cells, both solitary and colonial cells produce (1) structural carbohydrates, polysaccharides that are mainly part of the cell wall, (2) mono- and oligosaccharides, which are present as intermediates in the synthesis and catabolism of cell components, and (3) intracellular storage glucan. Colonial cells of Phaeocystis excrete (4) mucopolysaccharides, heteropolysaccharides that... 

In addition to the obvious difference in the direction of their metabolic goals, anabolism and catabolism differ in other significant ways. For example, the various degradative pathways of catabolism are convergent. That is, many hundreds of different proteins, polysaccharides and lipids are broken down into relatively few catabolic end products. The hundreds of anabolic pathways, however, are divergent. That is, the cell uses relatively few biosynthetic precursor molecules to synthesize a vast number of different proteins, polysaccharides and lipids. 

Polysaccharides, 44, 58 Prokaryote Cell, 7 Proline, 439 Promoters, 391 Protamines, 149 Proteans, 151 Protein Biosynthesis, 448 Protein Catabolism, 428 Protein Maturation, 449 Proteins, 262 Purine Metabolism, 379 Purines, 113 Pyridoxine, 229 Pyrimidines, 113 Pyruvate Kinase, 288... 

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