Macromolecular triplex zipping observed in derivatives of fungal (1 ? 3)-?-D-glucan by electron and atomic force microscopy

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Abstract
Scleroglucan, a comb‐like branched (1 → 3)‐β‐D‐glucan, dissolves in water as a stiff, triple‐helical structure with the single glucose branches extending from the surface. The aim of this study is to investigate structural changes in the triple‐helical structure associated with selective chemical modification of the side chains. Electron and atomic force microscopy, respectively, were used to investigate the macromolecular structures of aldehyde and carboxylated derivatives of scleroglucan—namely, scleraldehyde and sclerox—with different degrees of substitution. Scleraldehyde was observed to have structures resembling the triplex of the unmodified scleroglucan for all degrees of substitution up to 1.0. Additionally, an increasing tendency to aggregate for the higher degrees of substitution was observed. Fully carboxylated scleroglucan, sclerox1.0, prepared from solutions at ionic strengths below 1.0M, revealed dispersed, flexible, coil‐like structures. This indicates an electrostatic‐driven strand separation of the scleroglucan triple‐helical structure occurring concomitant with an increasing fraction of the side chains bearing carboxylate groups. Annealed sclerox1.0 samples in aqueous 1.0 and 1.5M NaCl exhibited partly, or completely, reassociated triplex ensembles, with species ranging from apparently fully zipped linear and circular topologies, partly zipped structures with triplex strand separation occurring at the ends, to dispersed single‐strands with random coil‐like appearance. This study shows that periodate oxidation of the scleroglucan side chains is not a sufficient modification of the side chains to induce dissociation of the triple‐helical structure, whereas further oxidation of the side chains to carboxylic groups dissociates the triple‐helical structure when the degree of substitution is above 0.6. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Biopolymers 58: 535–547, 2001