Polysaccharide Sources for Protein Binding

Most polysaccharides used in protein binding assays were obtained from commercial suppliers. Chitosan, α-chitin, and β-chitin were obtained from Maharani Chitosan PTV, Ltd. (Gujarat, India), while scleroglucan and pustulan were purchased from Carbosynth, UK. Microcrystalline cellulose (Avicel), starch, laminarin, and birchwood xylan were from Sigma Aldrich, Germany. Barley β-glucan, oat spelt xylan, ivory nut mannan, curdlan, and lichenan were purchased from Megazyme, Ireland. Glucose was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich. The disaccharides cellobiose, gentiobiose, laminaribiose, and sophorose were all purchased from Megazyme. Sophoropentaose and linear β-1,2-glucans were prepared in-house using 1,2-β-oligoglucan phosphorylase and β-1,2-glucanase as described previously^{58 (link)–60 (link)}. The weight and number averaged molecular weights of linear β-1,2-glucans are 7600 and 6200, respectively. The cyclic β-1,2-glucans were a gift from Mie University, Japan and comprised 17–24 glucose units.