STRUCTURE FUNCTION RELATIONSHIPS IN POLYSACCHARIDES

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中的一个 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源。子项目和 研究者（PI）可能从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金， 因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。列出的机构是 中心，不一定是研究者的机构。 我们的长期目标是阐明生物聚合物的分子结构，特别是多糖，以及它们与溶剂和溶质分子的相互作用，以及混合多糖中的协同相互作用，以深入了解它们的结构-功能关系。在这方面，本提案的主要目的是确定一些生物学上重要的和工业上有用的多糖的三维结构。我们正在进行的研究将包括但不限于（如有需要）来自藻类（ι、κ和λ角叉菜胶）、细菌（结冷胶类似物和洋葱）、真菌（葡糖醛酸甘露聚糖）、植物（鼠李糖半乳糖醛酸聚糖）、木材（半乳葡甘露聚糖）和二元系统（细菌黄原胶：植物葡甘露聚糖和细菌丙酮：植物葡甘露聚糖）的标本。此外，我们正在探索使用多糖纤维作为可能的药物载体。在这方面，最初，与一些已知的小分子复合的角叉菜胶纤维将被测试，以获得晶体衍射图案和描绘药物-角叉菜胶相互作用。 这些多糖或多糖复合物具有形成螺旋结构的固有趋势，其仅具有有限的横向排序，并且不适合于生长单晶。因此，纤维衍射是可视化其三维组织的唯一方法。这些结构信息对于理解它们与溶剂和溶质分子以及与其他多糖的相互作用对于它们在食品和药物应用中的有效利用是必不可少的。这些结果将进一步突出多糖在糖胺聚糖和细胞壁中的构象空间。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Our long term goals are to elucidate biopolymers molecular structures, especially polysaccharides, and their interactions with solvent and solute molecules and the synergistic interactions in mixed polysaccharides towards gaining insights about their structure-function relationships. In this regard, the main thrust of this proposal is centered on determining the three-dimensional structures of a number of biologically important and industrially useful polysaccharides. Our ongoing study will include, but not limited to (as need arises), the specimens from algal (iota, kappa and lambda carrageenans); bacterial (gellan analog and cepacian); fungal (glucuronoxylomannan); plant (rhamnogalacturonan); wood (galactoglucomannan) and a binary system (bacterial xanthan:plant glucomannan and bacterial acetan:plant glucomannan). Further, we are in the process of exploring the use of polysaccharide fibers as possible drug carriers. In this regard, initially, carrageenan fibers complexed with some known small molecules will be tested towards obtaining crystalline diffraction patterns and delineating the drug-carrageenan interactions. These polysaccharides or polysaccharide complexes have an inherent tendency to form helical structures with only limited lateral ordering and are not amenable for growing single crystals. Hence, fiber diffraction is the only method of choice for visualizing their three-dimensional organization. Such structural information is essential towards understanding their interactions with solvent and solute molecules as well as with other polysaccharides for their effective utilization in food and pharmaceutical applications. The results will further highlight the conformational space available to polysaccharides as they occur in glycosaminoglycans and cellular walls.