A brief overview of the structure of mannans in plant cell walls and other organisms is presented. In particular, mannans, galactomannans and glucomannans in seed endosperm and vegetative tissues such as bulbs and tubers, galactoglucomannans (GGMs) in primary cell walls, and glucomannans and GGMs in secondary walls of hardwoods and softwoods are covered. Possible roles of mannans in primary pla...

Glycoside hydrolases that degrade plant cell walls have complex molecular architectures in which one or more catalytic modules are appended to noncatalytic carbohydrate-binding modules (CBMs). CBMs promote binding to polysaccharides and potentiate enzymic hydrolysis. Although there are diverse sequence-based families of xylan-binding CBMs, these modules, in general, recognize both decorated and...