X-ray Diffraction Studies of Synthetic Polysaccharides*

In the present paper are described experiments with synthetic polysaccharides prepared with muscle, heart, and liver phosphorylase. As judged by solubility properties and iodine colorations, the muscle enzyme synthesizes a polysaccharide in vitro which resembles plant starches, while the heart and liver enzymes synthesize a polysaccharide which resembles glycogen (1). It will be shown below that these two types of synthetic polysaccharides also give different types of x-ray diffraction pattern. While this work was in progress, there appeared a report by Astbury, Bell, and Hanes (2) in which it was shown that native potato-starch granules and polysaccharide granules prepared by the action of potato phosphorylase on glucose-l-phosphate give the same x-ray diffraction pattern.