SOLUTION PROPERTIES OF COMPLEX POLYSACCHARIDES

该项目旨在研究化学物质之间的关系， 结构和复杂碳水化合物聚合物的溶液构象， 例如发生在真核细胞表面的那些， 组织的高等生物，并在细胞外囊， 各种微生物的粘液。 注意力将集中在 细胞外微生物多糖，其中许多是免疫原性的， 对宿主生物体的微生物感染至关重要。 定量 将进行各种高分子溶液性质的测量 出去 特别是，可直接访问的空间和几何特征 通过光散射和高分辨率核磁共振 将进行实验研究。 这些特点也是 可从详细和现实的分子模型定量计算 使用构象分析和统计的理论方法， 力学 观测结果和计算结果之间的一致性可以产生 对所采用的分子模型的物理真实性的信心。 可以使用可靠的多糖链模型，通常与 计算机图形技术，以了解结构-构象 一般的关系，并确定积极的首选 复杂碳水化合物聚合物的构象。 这种构象 信息对于理解分子间 介导许多这些生物功能的相互作用 材料.

This project is designed to investigate the relationships between chemical structure and the solution conformation of complex carbohydrate polymers, such as those that occur at eucaryotic cell surfaces, in the conective tissue of the higher organisms, and in the extracellular capsules and slimes of various microorganisms. Attention will be focussed on the extracellular microbial polysaccharides, many of which are immunogenic and essential for microbial infection of the host organisms. Quantitative measurements of various macromolecular solution properties will be carried out. In particular, spatial and geometric features accessible directly from light scattering and high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance experiments will be investigated. These characteristics are also calculable quantitatively from detailed and realistic molecular models using theoretical methods of conformational analysis and statistical mechanics. Agreement between observed and calculated results can engender confidence in the physical reality of the molecular models employed. Reliable polysaccharide chain models may be used, often in conjunction with computer graphics techniques, to understand the structure-conformation relationships in general and to identify the energetically preferred conformations of the complex carbohydrate polymers. such conformational information is essential to an understanding of the intermolecular interactions that mediate the biological function of many of these materials.