Primary monosaccharide recognition

Discrimination between Gal versus Man/GIc. While the ultimate selectivity of lectins is probably attained by the subsites and subunit multivalency, a major discriminatory factor in carbohydrate recognition is the primary monosaccharide specificity. In general, selectivity are achieved through a combination of hydrogen bonding to the sac-... 

The number of monosaccharide units in a polysaccharide molecule is termed the degree of polymerization (DP). The conformation of the individual monosaccharide residues in a polysaccharide is relatively fixed. The different kinds of primary structures that result in secondary and tertiary structures give different kinds of properties such as water solubility, aggregation and crystalfization, viscosity, gelation, digestibility and biological recognition. 

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