Preparation and enzymatic hydrolysis of nanoparticles made from single xyloglucan polysaccharide chain

In this work, polysaccharide nanoparticles based on tamarind seeds xyloglucan are prepared, analyzed in term of characteristic sizes and morphology, and degraded by the action of a glycoside-hydrolase. Obtained in an aqueous NaNO2 solution (0.1 M), these unaggregated nanoparticles have a characteristic diameter of ca. 60 nm (DLS, AFM and TEM measures). They are not compact, but highly swollen and look like hyperbranched and dendrimer-like (soft sphere model) structures. This observation is coherent with the native structure of the xyloglucan macromolecules which are themselves branched. The enzymatic hydrolysis by cellulase of Trichoderma reesei of the xyloglucan nanoparticles is investigated. In particular, the apparent mass molecular weight drastically decreases meaning that the xyloglucan nanoparticles are effectively fully hydrolyzed by the endo-β-(1,4)-glucanase. Furthermore, we observe that the enzyme has to uncoil the nanoparticles before cutting the β-(1→4) bonds and digesting the xyloglucan.