Heating-induced conformational change of a novel beta-(1-->3)-D-glucan from Pleurotus geestanus

Recently, we isolated and purified a neutral polysaccharide (PGN) from edible fungus Pleurotus geestanus. Its structure was characterized by a range of physical-chemical methods, including high performance anion exchange chromatography, uronic acid, and protein analyses, size exclusion chromatography with ultraviolet, refractive index and light scattering detectors, and nuclear magnetic resonance. Our results revealed that PGN is a novel beta-(1-->3)-D-glucan with glucose attached to every other sugar residues at Position 6 in the backbone. It has a degree of branching of 1/2. Such structure is different from typical beta-(1-->3)-D-glucans schizophyllan and lentinan in which DB is 1/3 and 2/5, respectively. Rheological study showed a very interesting melting behavior of PGN in water solution: heating PGN in water leads to two transitions, in the range of 8-12.5 degrees C and 25-60 degrees C, respectively. The melting behavior and conformational changes were characterized by rheometry, micro-differential scan calorimetry, atomic force microscopy, static and dynamic light scattering at different temperatures. The first heating-induced transition corresponds to the disintegration of polymer bundles into small helical clusters, resembling the heating-induced dissociation of SPG in water at 7 degrees C; the second one might correspond to the dissociation of helical strands to individual chains. The ability of PGN to undergo a conformation/viscosity transition in water upon heating is very valuable to immobilize cells or enzymes or therapeutic DNA/RNA, which makes PGN a potentially useful biomaterial.