STRUCTURE FUNCTION RELATIONSHIPS IN POLYSACCHARIDES

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中利用 资源由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。子项目和 调查员(PI)可能从NIH的另一个来源获得了主要资金， 并因此可以在其他清晰的条目中表示。列出的机构是 该中心不一定是调查人员的机构。 由于其固有的凝胶性、粘度和增稠性，多糖被用于食品和医药领域。由于这些生物聚合物的宏观性质主要由它们的分子几何和原子水平相互作用决定，因此非常需要准确的分子细节来了解具有生物学和工业重要性的多糖，以便更好地了解它们的结构-功能关系。作为普渡大学惠斯勒碳水化合物研究中心的成员，我们的目标进一步构成了该中心多学科研究活动的重要组成部分。到目前为止，我们已经成功地破译了阳离子和/或侧基在结冷胶相关多糖的连接区形成中的作用，比如半乳甘露聚糖和卡拉胶，以了解它们的功能性质。在这方面，我们的长期研究目标是确定多糖的结构及其与溶剂和溶质分子的相互作用，以及混合多糖体系中的协同作用。在这项正在进行的研究中，我们选择了一些具有重要生物学意义和工业价值的多糖，例如藻类(IOTA-、kappa-和lambda-carrageenans)、细菌(结冷胶类似物和洋葱)、真菌(葡聚糖甘露聚糖)、PLAN(鼠李半乳糖醛酸)和二元体系(细菌丙烷：PLAN葡甘露聚糖)的样本。最近，我们冒险进入利用多糖纤维作为药物载体的领域。

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. Polysaccharides are used in food and pharmaceutical applications due to their inherent abilities such as gelation, viscosity and thickening behavior. As the macroscopic properties of these biopolymers are dictated mainly by their molecular geometry and atomic level interactions, accurate molecular details of biologically and industrially important polysaccharides are very much in need for gaining better insights about their structure-function relationships. As members of the Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research, Purdue University, our aim further constitutes a major part of the multidisciplinary research activities of the Center. We have so far successfully deciphered the roles of cations and/or side groups in the junction zone formation of gellan related polysaccharides, galactomannan and iota-carrageenan, to name a few, towards understanding their functional properties. In this regard, our long term research goals are to determine polysaccharides architectures and their interactions with solvent and solute molecules as well as the synergistic interactions in mixed polysaccharide systems. In this ongoing study, we chose a number of biologically important and industrial useful polysaccharides, such as specimens from algal (iota-, kappa- and lambda-carrageenans); bacterial (gellan analog and cepacian); fungal (glucoronoxylomannan); plan (rhamnogalacturonan) and a binary system (bacterial acetan: plan glucomannan). More recently, we ventured in to the area of utilizing polysaccharide fibers as drug carriers.