Well-Defined Oligo- and Polysaccharides as Ideal Probes for Structural Studies

• Published in: Journal of the American Chemical Society Vol. 140; no. 16; pp. 5421 - 5426
• Main Authors: Delbianco, Martina, Kononov, Andrew, Poveda, Ana, Yu, Yang, Diercks, Tammo, Jiménez-Barbero, Jesús, Seeberger, Peter H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: WASHINGTON American Chemical Society 25.04.2018; Amer Chemical Soc
• Subjects: automation; Chemistry; Chemistry, Multidisciplinary; molecular models; nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy; Physical Sciences; polysaccharides; Science & Technology; NMR; OLIGOSACCHARIDES; SOLID-PHASE SYNTHESIS; GLYCANS; AUTOMATED SYNTHESIS; FORCE-FIELD; CRYSTALLOGRAPHY; MYCOBACTERIAL ARABINOGALACTAN
• ISSN: 0002-7863; 1520-5126; 1520-5126
• DOI: 10.1021/jacs.8b00254

Polysaccharides are the most abundant organic materials in nature, yet correlations between their three-dimensional structure and macroscopic properties have not been established. Automated glycan assembly enables the preparation of well-defined oligo- and polysaccharides resembling natural as well as unnatural structures. These synthetic glycans are ideal probes for the fundamental study of polysaccharides. According to molecular modeling simulations and NMR analysis, different classes of polysaccharides adopt fundamentally different conformations that are drastically altered by single-site substitutions. Larger synthetic polysaccharides are obtained via a “LEGO”-like approach as a first step toward the production of tailor-made carbohydrate-based materials.