Jy. Lequestel et al., COMPUTER MODELING OF SULFATED CARBOHYDRATES - APPLICATIONS TO CARRAGEENANS, International journal of biological macromolecules, 17(3-4), 1995, pp. 161-175
In this study, X-ray crystallographic data of sulfated monosaccharides
have been used to derive appropriate parameters for sulfate groups in
the Tripos force field, previously parameterized for carbohydrates. A
database of nine sulfated monosaccharides occurring as building block
s of sulfated polysaccharides such as carrageenans and sulfated glycos
aminoglycans has been built. These tools have then been used to evalua
te the conformational energies of the repeating units of the kappa-, i
ota- and lambda-carrageenan polymers, taking into account the rotation
around the sulfate groups. In a third step, helical conformations of
carrageenans have been explored and the results compared with the expe
rimental data obtained by X-ray fibre diffraction. Stable, single, rig
ht-handed helices, with geometric and helical parameters in close corr
espondence with the best models derived from X-ray diffraction data, h
ave been generated. Finally, the configurational statistics of random-
coil carrageenan chains have been investigated and compared with exper
imental data currently available on these polymers. A highly flexible
character is predicted for kappa- and iota-carrageenans, with lambda-c
arrageenan showing slightly more extension.