A Sweet Battle: The role of molecular conformation and hydration shell water in assembly of complex

Polysaccharide hydrocolloids are a class of biological polymers with unique physicochemical properties, versatile functionality and a broad spectrum of applications in foods, where they are used as thickening, gelling and structuring agents. Unlike proteins and DNA, typical food polysaccharides are composed of a relatively small repertoire of constituent monomers, making their properties difficult to modulate without a need for chemical modification. However, things are changing when one considers branched polysaccharides that adopt the densely-packed bottle-brush architecture. This talk considers behaviour of the complex, heavily branched polysaccharides such as RG-I pectins and complex xylans. The presence of side-chains results in two very important features of these polymers. First, the presence of branching points stimulates formation of the solvation shell structures with water existing in a highly bound, yet mobile state. Second, the presence of branching point gives rise to the emergence of ‘motif’-specific inter- and intra-molecular interactions that dictate conformation and associative and binding behaviour of these complex polysaccharides.