Structural characterization of the pectic polysaccharide rhamnogalacturonan II: evidence for the backbone location of the aceric acid-containing oligoglycosyl side chain Original Research Article

Monomeric rhamnogalacturonan II (mRG-II) was isolated from red wine and the reducing-end galacturonic acid of the backbone converted to l-galactonic acid by treatment with NaBH4. The resulting product (mRG-II′ol) was treated with a cell-free extract from Penicillium daleae, a fungus that has been shown to produce RG-II-fragmenting glycanases. The enzymatically generated products were fractionated by size-exclusion and anion-exchange chromatographies and the quantitatively major oligosaccharide fraction isolated. This fraction contained structurally related oligosaccharides that differed only in the presence or absence of a single Kdo residue. The Kdo residue was removed by acid hydrolysis and the resulting oligosaccharide then characterized by 1- and 2D 1H NMR spectroscopy, ESMS, and by glycosyl-residue and glycosyl-linkage composition analyses. The results of these analyses provide evidence for the presence of at least two structurally related oligosaccharides in the ratio ∼6:1. The backbone of these oligosaccharides is composed of five (1→4)-linked α-d-GalpA residues and a (1→3)-linked l-galactonate. The (1→4)-linked GalpA residue adjacent to the terminal non-reducing GalpA residue of the backbone is substituted at O-2 with an apiosyl-containing side chain. β-l-Araf-(1→5)-β-d-DhapA is likely to be linked to O-3 of the GalpA residue at the non-reducing end of the backbone in the quantitatively major oligosaccharide and to O-3 of a (1→4)-linked GalpA residue in the backbone of the minor oligosaccharide. Furthermore, the results of our studies have shown that the enzymically generated aceryl acid-containing oligosaccharide contains an α-linked aceryl acid residue and a β-linked galactosyl residue. Thus, the anomeric linkages of these residues in RG-II should be revised.