New publication co-authored by Sole Roig and Anna Laromaine!

The N&N researchers Sole Roig and Anna Laromained are co-authors of the publication “Enzymically attaching oligosaccharide-linked ‘cargoes’ to cellulose and other commercial polysaccharides via stable covalent bonds” recently published on the International Journal of Biological Macromolecules.

Congratulations to them and their collaborators! 

The Equisetumenzyme hetero-trans-β-glucanase (HTG) covalently grafts native plant cellulose (donor-substrate) to xyloglucan-heptasaccharide (XXXGol; acceptor-substrate), offering a novel ‘green’ method of cellulose functionalization. We show that plant-derived celluloses (cellulose Iβ) became more effective donor-substrates after ‘mercerisation’ in ≥3 M NaOH, while the opposite was found for bacterial cellulose (Iα). Moreover, cellulose-XXXGol bonds resisted boiling 6 M NaOH as strong glycosidic bondings were formed, demonstrating that HTG stably grafts native and processed celluloses to xyloglucan-oligosaccharides, which may carry valuable ‘cargoes’.