Polysaccharides of fungi

Gorin PAJ, Barreto-Bergter E (1983) The chemistry of polysaccharides of fungi and lichens. In Aspinall GP (ed) The polysaccharides, vol 2. Academic Press, New York, chap 6... 

An increasing interest is being shown in the polysaccharides of fungi. In particular, chemistry and biochemistry of the intra-or exo-cellular polysaccharides have been studied by several workers. The relationship between taxonomy and chemical structure of fungal polysaccharides is an interesting subject. Cell wall chemistry and taxonomy of fungi were reviewed by Bartnicki-Garcia... 

There are various chemical functional groups that would attract and sequester the metals in biomass acetamido groups of chitin, structural polysaccharides of fungi, amido, amino, sulphydryl and carboxyl groups in proteins, hydroxyls in polysaccharide and mainly carboxyls and sulfates in polysaccharides of marine algae that belong to the divisions Phaeophyta, Rhodophyta and Chlorophyta. 

In dimorphic fungi, the composition of constituent polysaccharides is sensitive to morphology and to the cultural conditions. These effects are accentuated in the case of Sporothrix schenckii, and 13C-n.m.r. spectroscopy can be used to detect individual polysaccharides in a qualitative way. The 13C-n.m.r. spectra of mannose-containing polysaccharides of ten Sporothrix schenckii and three Ceratocystis stenoceras species, grown under various conditions, were distinguishable in terms of the presence of signals,130 at 8C 103.3 to 103.7, which arose from 0-a-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(l- 2)-0-a-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1— 3)-side-chains (14 C-l, 103.7 C-l, 96.8), and were not present in... 

Chitin is a polysaccharide structurally and functionally related to cellulose. The structure is derived from that of cellulose by replacing one of the hydroxyl groups on each monosaccharide unit by an acetamido group, —NHCOCH3. Chitin is the structural polysaccharide of lower plants, such as fungi, and of invertebrates, particularly arthropods. It is the second most abundant organic substance on Earth. 

Chitin, a homopolymer from pi 4-linked N-acetylglucosamine, is the most important structural substance in insect and crustacean shells, and is thus the most common animal polysaccharide. It also occurs in the cell wall of fungi. 

The cell wall of fungi is a complex, multilayered structure formed by at least two major polysaccharides. These major polysaccharides have been used as a taxonomic criterion for fungi, as some of them contain chitin-glucans, and others, glucomannans.123... 

T ine structural studies on woody cell walls attacked by ectoenzymes of fungi in situ are numerous (cf. 1,2). In contrast, investigations on the selective degradation of cell walls by enzymes isolated from fungi are few. Jutte and Wardrop (3) attempted the use of crude commercial cellu-lase preparations to determine the degradation pattern of Valonia cellulose and beechwood fibers. Similar use of commercial preparations of enzymes was made by Reis and Roland (4) to evaluate the nature of diverse cell walls and to show the distribution of polysaccharides. An endo-/ -l,4-xylanase with specific xylanolytic activities was isolated from a commercial cellulase preparation using chromatographic methods and... 

Kiho, T., Yamane, A., Hui, J., Usi, S., and Ukai, S. 1996. Polysaccharides in fungi XXXVI. Hypoglycaemic activity of a polysaccharide (CS-F30) from the cultural mycelium of Cordyceps sinensis and its effect on glucose metabolism in mouse liver. Biol. Pharm. Bull. 19(2), 294-296. 

An article by Barreto-Bergter (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Gorin (Saskatoon, Canada) likewise invokes strong emphasis on n.m.r. methods for structure determination, in this instance by use of carbon-13 techniques in delineating the structural chemistry of polysaccharides from fungi and lichens. 

Zymosan An insoluble polysaccharide derived from the cell walls of fungi. More... 

Fucose has been detected in many fungi. It is formed on hydrolysis of the cell walls of the yeast-like fungi Mucor adventitius, Mucor hiemalis, Mucor javanicus, Mucor plumbeus, Mucor racemosus, Mucor spinosus, and Mucor sylvaticus, and in Rhizopus oryzae, Rhizoptts tamari, Rhizopus tonkiniensis, and Zygorrhyncus vuillemmU. The acidic, exocellular polysaccharide of Mucor racemosus contains L-fucosyl residues. ... 

Functional tests, for enzyme purity, 286 Fungi, polysaccharides of, 367—417 2-Furaldehyde, 5-(hydroxymethyl)-, from cellulose on pyrolysis, 432 Furan, tetrahydro-, as solvent in lithium... 

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