The walls deposited by growing pollen tubes contain two types of beta-glucan, the (1,3)-beta-glucan callose and the (1,4)-beta-glucan cellulose, as well as various alpha-linked pectic polysaccharides. Pollen tubes of Nicotiana alata Link et Otto, an ornamental tobacco, were therefore used to identify genes potentially encoding catalytic subunits of the callose synthase and cellulose synthase en...

The effects in broiler chicks of treatment with a competitive exclusion (CE) product, an experimental dietary probiotic, and the abiotic beta-glucan on cecal colonization, organ invasion, and serum and intestinal IgG and IgA levels to Salmonella challenge was evaluated. Four groups of 1-d-old chicks were treated by oral gavage on d 1 with an appropriate dose of a commercial CE product. Three gr...

Health benefits of the polysaccharide (1-->3)-beta-D-glucan, reported to induce immunobiological, hypocholesterolemic, and hypoglycemic effects in humans and animals, have made the isolation, characterization, and assay of a viable glucan product critical. A new analytical method, based on internal standard proton NMR analysis, for the assay of solvent-wet samples containing (1-->3)-beta-D-gluc...

Genes essential for the production of a linear, bacterial (1-->3)-beta-glucan, curdlan, have been cloned for the first time from Agrobacterium sp. ATCC31749. The genes occurred in two, nonoverlapping, genomic fragments that complemented different sets of curdlan( crd )-deficient transposon-insertion mutations. These were detected as colonies that failed to stain with aniline blue, a (1-->3)-bet...

Production of ?-glucan is mainly used for cancer therapy. The most well-known are those occur in fungal grains such as cereal and other micro-organisms. The most important beta glucan from a nutritional and ingredient standpoint is that derived from fungal grain. Optimization of medium ingredients for the production of mycelial ?-glucan from lower fungi in submerged fermentation and antioxidant...

In Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Bgs1/Cps1p is a beta(1,3)-glucan synthase required for linear beta(1,3)-glucan synthesis and primary septum formation. Here, we have studied the regulation of Bgs1p by Cfh3/Chr4p, a member of a family of conserved adaptor proteins, which resembles the chitin synthase regulator Chs4p from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Candida albicans. cfh3Delta cells showed a geneti...

The C-terminal 191-residue module of Cel5A from the alkalophilic Bacillus sp. 1139 comprises a carbohydrate-binding module (CBM) belonging to a previously unidentified family that we have classified as CBM family 28. This example, called CBM28, bound specifically to cello-oligosaccharides and mixed beta-(1,3)(1,4)-glucans (barley beta-glucan) with association constants of approximately (1-4)x10...

Beta-(1,3)/(1,6) D-glucan, a component of the fungal cell wall, has been shown to stimulate the immune system, enhance hematopoiesis, amplify killing of opsonized tumor cells and increase neutrophil chemotaxis and adhesion. In view of these attributes, the beta-glucans should be studied for both their therapeutic efficacy in patients with cancer as well as an adjunctive therapy in patients rece...

The ability of Candida albicans to rapidly and reversibly switch between yeast and filamentous morphologies is crucial to pathogenicity, and it is thought that the filamentous morphology provides some advantage during interaction with the mammalian immune system. Dectin-1 is a receptor that binds beta-glucans and is important for macrophage phagocytosis of fungi. The receptor also collaborates ...

To investigate the effects of (1-->3)-beta-D-glucan after inhalation, animals were exposed to different forms of glucan and the number of lung lavage cells was determined 24 h after exposure. None of the different forms assayed caused any increase in cell numbers. In animals exposed to endotoxin, all types of cells were increased after 24 h. A simultaneous exposure to curdlan reduced this incre...