Polysaccharides structures

Commercial applications for polysaccharides include their use as food additives, medicines and industrial products. Although plant polysaccharides (such as starch, agar and alginate) have been exploited commercially for many years, microbial exopolysaccharides have only become widely used over the past few decades. The diversity of polysaccharide structure is far greater in micro-organisms compared to plants and around 20 microbial polysaccharides with market potential have been described. However, microorganisms are still considered to be a rich and as yet underexploited source of exopolysaccharides. 

Figure 7.11 Restriction map of Xanthomonas campestris xanthan gene cluster. Adapted from R W Vanderslice at at. Genetic engineering of polysaccharide structure In Xanthomonas campestris. In Biomedical and Biotechnological Advances In Industrial Polysaccharides, 1989, Gordon and Breach N Y.

Oligosaccharide and polysaccharide structures occur not only in free form but often as parts of glycopeptides or glycoproteins [11] or of glycolipids [21]. It can be cumbersome to designate their structures by using the recommendations of 2-Carb-37. The use of three-letter symbols for monosaccharide residues is therefore recommended. With appropriate locants and anomeric descriptors, long sequences can thus be adequately described in abbreviated form. 

In contrast with the monotonous monosaccharide repeat and the same type of linkage in the polysaccharide structures (1 to 21) described in Sections IV and V, this section deals with rather more complex polymers (23 to 39), which are composed of disaccharide repeats. Further, combining two types of linkages enhances the formation of exotic morphologies not amenable to the former set. The sequence listed in Table II is referred to as -A-B- in Table V while listing... 

J.F. Thibauit, M. Rinaudo, Proc. Int. workshop on "Plant Polysaccharides, Structure and Function" Nantes, France (1984) 214. 

The objective of the project described is to obtain insight in the relation between the chemical fine-structure of polysaccharides from soy bean cell walls and their functional properties in industrial products and how they effect processing. Soy meal is of great importance in the feed industry. The application of the (modified) soy bean cell wall polysaccharides as a food additive will be investigated. The obtained knowledge of the polysaccharide structures will also be used in studies concerned with the improvement of the in vivo digestibility of these polysaccharides. 

SOLMS—PECTINS AND RELATED POLYSACCHARIDES STRUCTURAL ASPECTS OF GELATION... 

The degradation process has a free radical mechanism. It is initiated by free radicals P that appear due to, for example, hydroperoxide decomposition induced thermally or by trace amounts of metal ions present in the polysaccharide. One cannot exclude even direct interaction of the polysaccharide with oxygen in its ground triplet state with biradical character. Hydroperoxidic and/or peracid moieties are easily formed by oxidation of semiacetal chain end groups. The sequence of reactions on carbon 6 of polysaccharide structural unit that ultimately may lead to chemiluminescence is shown in Scheme 11. 

H. Saito, in Polysaccharides Structural Diversity and Functional Versatility,... 

McCleary, B.V., and Matheson, N.K. (1986) Enzymic analysis of polysaccharide structure. Adv. Carbohydr. Chem. Biochem. 44, 147-276. 

The problems associated with deriving a polysaccharide structure from diffraction data remain. As the number of parameters needed to describe a segment of the chain is far greater than the number of diffraction spots, it is necessary to start with a model that is reasonable on steric grounds. Then, by comparison between observed and calculated diffraction data, the original postulate is modified to bring... 

The integral intensities of signals of polysaccharides, obtained with a modem spectrometer under the usual operating conditions, are proportional or quasi-proportional, to the number of 13C nuclei present. This has been observed, in particular, in the case of linear hexo-pyranan structures containing one type,11,47,51,55,56 58-61 or two equal types, of linkage,62 or branched-chain polymers having two linkage types,53,58 where the resonances are readily resolved. In such cases, the T values would be low, 0.2 s or less, and the n.O.e. values would be approximately equal. However, few actual determinations of these values have been made, and extrapolation of such assumptions to more-complex polysaccharide structures is not recommended, as outlined in Section V,2,... 

Red algae can produce many different polysaccharide structures, and four of these were examined, and differentiated, by means of the C-l region of their 13C-n.m.r. spectra.157 These were agar (24), K-carra-geenan (25 R = S03-Na+), partially desulfated K-carrageenan (25 R = S03-Na+ or H+), and i-carrageenan (26), three of which have predomi-... 

Figure 4.21 An illustration of how the configuration of glycosidic bonds determine polysaccharide structure and function. The P-1-4 linkages in cellulose favourize straight chains, optimal for structural purposes, whereas the a-1-4 linkages are favourable to bent structures, better adapted to storage in a hydrated form.

NMR can also be used to elucidate the structural features of a repeating unit in a polysaccharide and to investigate the conformation and dynamics of polysaccharides.21 A unique polysaccharide structure results in a characteristic proton NMR spectrum. Therefore, NMR is a powerful tool for identifying polysaccharide structures. This remarkable specificity has led to the development of a routine NMR-based identity assay, recently reported by Abeygunawardana et al. for quality control testing of bacterial polysaccharide to be used in formulating a polyvalent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine.22... 

Harris, P.J. and Smith, B.G., Plant Cell Walls and Cell-Wall Polysaccharides Structures, Properties and Uses in Food Products, Int. J. Food Set Technoi, 41, 129 (2006)... 

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. 

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