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Updated: Aug 21, 2026

Preparation of Fungal and Plant Materials for Structural Elucidation Using Dynamic Nuclear Polarization Solid-State NMR
Published on: February 12, 2019
The structure of cell wall alpha-glucan from fission yeast
Christian H Grün1, Frans Hochstenbach, Bruno M Humbel
1Bijvoet Center, Department of Bio-Organic Chemistry, Section of Glycoscience and Biocatalysis, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Morphology and structural integrity of fungal cells depend on cell wall polysaccharides. The chemical structure and biosynthesis of two types of these polysaccharides, chitin and (1-->3)-beta-glucan, have been studied extensively, whereas little is known about alpha-glucan. Here we describe the chemical structure of alpha-glucan isolated from wild-type and mutant cell walls of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Wild-type alpha-glucan was found to consist of a single population of linear glucose polymers, approximately 260 residues in length. These glucose polymers were composed of two interconnected linear chains, each consisting of approximately 120 (1-->3)-linked alpha-d-glucose residues and some (1-->4)-linked alpha-D-glucose residues at the reducing end. By contrast, alpha-glucan of an alpha-glucan synthase mutant with an aberrant cell morphology and reduced alpha-glucan levels consisted of a single chain only. We propose that alpha-glucan biosynthesis involves an ordered series of events, whereby two alpha-glucan chains are coupled to create mature cell wall alpha-glucan. This mature form of cell wall alpha-glucan is essential for fission-yeast morphogenesis.
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