Nonfood, plant-based biofuels have potential as a green alternative to fossil fuels, but the enzymes required for production are too inefficient and costly to produce. However, new research published in Chemical Science is ...
Biochemistry
May 10, 2023
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16
Aloe vera is a well-known plant species from the genus Aloe used throughout the globe in wide range of products from creams and soaps to drinks and over-the-counter products. The genus Aloe has been used in traditional medicine ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 22, 2023
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8
A fungus that plagues rice crops worldwide gains entry to plant cells in a way that leaves it vulnerable to simple chemical blockers, a discovery that could lead to new fungicides to reduce the substantial annual losses of ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Feb 13, 2023
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82
Antibiotic resistant bacteria are becoming more and more of a concern as traditional sources of anti-microbial treatments become less effective. Therefore, researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev are looking farther ...
Biochemistry
Jan 26, 2023
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30
Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant feedstock in production of bio-based fuels and materials. The enzyme "cocktail" is considered as a powerful tool to allocate diverse specific activities in one matrix.
Biochemistry
Oct 14, 2022
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21
A team of researchers with members from Peking University and WuXi AppTec (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., has designed and built an automated carbohydrate synthesizer that produced polysaccharides of record-breaking length. In their ...
In Gram-negative bacteria, which include some of the most devastating human pathogens, just two mechanisms for the export of polysaccharides have been identified so far. Now a Max Planck research team led by Lotte Søgaard-Andersen ...
Cell & Microbiology
Aug 29, 2022
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106
Dioxygen activations constitute one of the core issues in copper-dependent metalloenzymes. Upon O2 activation, copper-dependent metalloenzymes, including particulate methane monooxygenases (pMMOs), lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases ...
Materials Science
Apr 27, 2022
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9
Strings of sugars called polysaccharides are the most abundant biopolymers on Earth. Because of their versatile and environmentally friendly properties, these molecules could eventually replace some plastics. Now, researchers ...
Polymers
Mar 16, 2022
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70
The next time you get a craving for sushi rolls, you may feel a renewed appreciation for the ocean. It's to thank not only for your fish and seaweed wrapper, but, as a new Michigan Medicine study suggests, for the bacteria ...
Cell & Microbiology
Mar 2, 2022
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176
Polysaccharides are long carbohydrate molecules, of repeated monomer units joined together by glycosidic bonds. They range in structure from linear to highly branched. Polysaccharides are often quite heterogeneous, containing slight modifications of the repeating unit. Depending on the structure, these macromolecules can have distinct properties from their monosaccharide building blocks. They may be amorphous or even insoluble in water.
When all the monosaccharides in a polysaccharide are the same type, the polysaccharide is called a homopolysaccharide or homoglycan, but when more than one type of monosaccharide is present they are called heteropolysaccharides or heteroglycans.
Examples include storage polysaccharides such as starch and glycogen, and structural polysaccharides such as cellulose and chitin.
Polysaccharides have a general formula of Cx(H2O)y where x is usually a large number between 200 and 2500. Considering that the repeating units in the polymer backbone are often six-carbon monosaccharides, the general formula can also be represented as (C6H10O5)n where 40≤n≤3000.
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