The Structure of Pectin
- Oklahoma State Univ., Stillwater, OK (United States). Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
At the beginning of this project we hypothesized that pectin, which is a major polysaccharide in primary plant cell walls, is composed of various distinct structural regions covalently linked together into a high molecular weight complex polymer. We also hypothesized that a considerable portion of xyloglucan, the major hemicellulose in most primary cell walls, is linked to the pectin. Our goal was to determine if these interconnections exist and to characterize the exact nature of the interactions. It seems imperative that we have a complete knowledge of the structure of pectin to be able to propose realistic models of cell walls. There is a lot of interest in the biosynthesis of pectin. I do not think it will be possible to completely understand the biosynthesis of pectin without knowing the structure of pectin and thus the sequence of reactions needed to put each sugar or ester in its correct position in the polymer. We made considerable progress in determining the detailed structure of pectin and within a year or so will be able to put forward a comprehensive model of it.
- Research Organization:
- Oklahoma State Univ., Stillwater, OK (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-96ER20215
- OSTI ID:
- 1338918
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-OSU-20215
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Lack of xyloglucan in the cell walls of the Arabidopsis xxt1/xxt2 mutant results in specific increases in homogalacturonan and glucomannan
Galactosylation of xyloglucan is essential for the stabilization of the actin cytoskeleton and endomembrane system through the proper assembly of cell walls