Identification and Quantification of Glycans in Whole Cells: Architecture of Microalgal Polysaccharides Described by Solid-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

• DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c07429
• Publication Date: 2021-11-04T20:32:51Z
• Authors: Alexandre Poulhazan; Malitha C. Dickwe...; Artur Muszyński; Alexandre A. Arnold; Dror E. Warschawski; Parastoo Azadi; Isabelle Marcotte; Tuo Wang
• Keywords: Magic angle spinning; Bacterial Cellulose; Sporopollenin

Microalgae are photosynthetic organisms widely distributed in nature and serve as a sustainable source of bioproducts. Their carbohydrate components also promising candidates for bioenergy production bioremediation, but the structural characterization these heterogeneous polymers cells remains formidable problem. Here we present applicable protocol identifying quantifying glycan content using magic-angle-spinning (MAS) solid-state NMR (ssNMR) spectroscopy, with validation from glycosyl linkage composition analysis deduced mass-spectrometry (MS). Two-dimensional 13C–13C correlation ssNMR spectra uniformly 13C-labeled green microalga Parachlorella beijerinckii reveal that starch is most abundant polysaccharide naturally cellulose-deficient strain, this polymer adopts well-organized highly rigid structure cell. Some xyloses both mobile domains cell wall, their chemical shifts partially aligned flat-ribbon 2-fold xylan identified plants. Surprisingly, other carbohydrates largely mobile, regardless distribution glycolipids or walls. These insights correlate high digestibility in-cell methods will facilitate investigations economically important algae species.