title: A new route to carbohydrate secondary and tertiary structure using Raman spectroscopy and Raman optical activity.
abstract: The structural characterization of carbohydrate polymers is important for understanding their functions and behavior. However, mainstream structural biology tools are not applicable to many carbohydrate polymers, particularly at physiological concentrations. We report Raman and Raman optical activity spectra of hyaluronan polymer, the hyaluronan tetramer building block, and the two monosaccharide components glucuronic acid and N-acetylglucosamine and identify marker bands corresponding to primary and secondary structure in glycosaminoglycans. Furthermore, we show that the hyaluronan polymer does not adopt tertiary structure under near-physiological conditions, confirming a proposed model of hyaluronan structural organization.
authors.affiliation: Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre, The University of Manchester, 131 Princess Street, Manchester M1 7DN, UK.
authors.forename: Nicola R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Yaffe
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Almond
authors.forename: Ewan W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Blanch
mesh_terms: D002236:Carbohydrate Conformation; D006820:Hyaluronic Acid / Q000737:chemistry*; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers; D006820:Hyaluronic Acid