Hydrolysis characteristics of a beta-1,3-D-glucan elicitor from yeast.

Fluorophore-assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis (FACE) is a straightforward, sensitive method for determining the presence and relative abundance of individual (oligo)saccharides in a(n) (oligo)saccharide mixture. The single-terminal aldehydes of oligoglucoside residues released by acid hydrolysis of beta-1,3-D-glucan from yeast were tagged with the charged fluorophore ANTS (8-aminonaphthalene-1,3,6-trisulphonate), and separated with high resolution on the basis of size by PAGE. ANTS fluorescence labelling was not biased by oligoglucoside length; therefore band fluorescence intensity was directly related to the relative abundance of individual oligoglucoside moieties in a heterogeneous sample. FACE analysis revealed that the major oligoglucoside mixture released by acid hydrolysis from beta-1,3-D-glucan was composed of monosaccharide, disaccharide, trisaccharide, tetrasaccharide, pentasaccharide, hexasaccharide, heptasaccharide and octasaccharide, and the order of abundance from high to low was trisaccharide, monosaccharide, disaccharide, tetrasaccharide, pentasaccharide, hexasaccharide, heptasaccharide and octasaccharide respectively. In conclusion, FACE represents an accessible, sensitive and quantitative analytical tool enabling the characterization of a(n) (oligo)saccharide mixture.