title: A gel-forming beta-glucan isolated from the fruit bodies of the edible mushroom Pleurotus florida.
abstract: Glucans of basidiomycetes are considered to be an important class of polysaccharides, as they can act as biological response modifiers. We now isolate a gel-forming, water-soluble beta-glucan, with a molecular mass of 1.2 x 10(6)g/mol (HPSEC), from the fruit bodies of the edible mushroom Pleurotus florida, via alkaline extraction, followed by fractionation by freeze-thawing. Structural assignments were carried out using mono- and bi-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, monosaccharide composition, methylation analyses, and a controlled Smith degradation. It was a branched beta-glucan, with a main chain of (1-->3)-linked-Glcp residues, substituted at O-6 by single-unit Glcp side chains, on average to every fourth residue of the backbone.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular, Universidade Federal do Paraná, CP 19046, CEP 81531-980 Curitiba, PR, Brazil.
authors.forename: Juliana C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Santos-Neves
authors.forename: Maria Izabel
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.forename: Elaine R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Carbonero
authors.forename: Ana Helena P
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Gracher
authors.forename: Philip A J
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Gorin
authors.forename: Guilherme L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Sassaki
authors.forename: Marcello
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iacomini
mesh_terms: D002240:Carbohydrate Sequence; D048690:Fruiting Bodies, Fungal / Q000378:metabolism*; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015394:Molecular Structure; D020076:Pleurotus / Q000378:metabolism*; D047071:beta-Glucans / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D047071:beta-Glucans