Polysaccharides from grape berry cell walls. Part I: tissue distribution and structural characterization of the pectic polysaccharides

Buffer-soluble arabinogalactan-proteins (AGPs) and pectins from grape berry skin and pulp tissues have been isolated and their structure has been partly determined. Pectic polysaccharides from the cell wall material were solubilized by treating pulp and skin cell walls with homogeneous glycosyl hydrolases. Homogalacturonans, rhamnogalacturonans I (RG-I), and rhamnogalacturonan II (RG-II) of each tissue have been fractionated by high resolution size exclusion chromatography and their relative distribution and major structural features have been determined. It has been shown that pulp tissue contains two-fold more buffer-soluble AGPs and pectins than skin tissue and we have determined that 75% of the grape berry walls originates from the skin tissue. There is three-fold more RG-I and RG-II in skin tissue than in pulp tissue and three-fold more RG-I than RG-II in the grape berry cell walls.

The results of this study have shown that the grape polysaccharide content of a wine is related to the type of tissue used for wine making and to the solubility of the grape polysaccharides and their resistance to fragmentation by grape and yeast glycanases.