title: Gel electrophoretic analysis of chitosan hydrolysis products.
abstract: Enzymatic hydrolysis of commercial crustacean chitosan by barley chitosanases was analyzed by subjecting chitosan to electrophoresis in a 10% w/v polyacrylamide slab gel in the presence of 7 M urea and 5.5% v/v acetic acid. Chitosan migrated as a polycation. Chitosan was stained with Coomassie Brilliant Blue R-250 or visualized by ultraviolet transillumination after staining with Calcofluor White M2R. Some chitosan molecules were retarded by gel electrophoresis while small chitosan molecules migrated at the bottom of a 10% w/v polyacrylamide gel. Such analysis revealed that 96 h were necessary to convert all chitosan to oligosaccharides under our assay conditions. Chitosan oligosaccharides generated by enzymatic or chemical hydrolysis were further analyzed by electrophoresis in a 33% w/v polyacrylamide gel containing urea and acetic acid. Coomassie Brilliant Blue R-250 was found to be better than Calcofluor White M2R for staining chitosan oligosaccharides. Chitosan oligomers of four residues (tetramers) or more were easily resolved in such a polyacrylamide gel system. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a gel electrophoretic separation of chitosan and its oligosaccharides.
authors.affiliation: Départment de-phytologie, Faculté des sciences de l'agriculture, Université Laval, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Audy
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Asselin
mesh_terms: D002686:Chitin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism; D048271:Chitosan; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D006868:Hydrolysis; D013194:Staining and Labeling
chemical_list: D002686:Chitin; D048271:Chitosan