Type I arabinogalactan contains beta-D-Galp-(1-->3)-beta-D-Galp structural elements

Arabinogalactan type I from potato was partially degraded by endo-galactanase from Aspergillus niger. High-performance anion-exchange chromatography revealed that several of the oligomeric degradation products eluted as double peaks. To investigate the nature of these products, the digest was fractionated by Bio-Gel P2 chromatography. The pool that contained tetramers was treated with a beta-D-Galp-(1-->4)-specific galactosidase from Bifidobacterium adolescentis to obtain a dimer with deviating linkage type, which was further purified by BioGel P2 chromatography. By obtaining all (1)H and (13)C chemical shifts and the presence of intra residual scalar coupling (HMBC) it could be concluded that the dimer contained a beta-(1-->3)-linkage instead of the expected beta-(1-->4)-linkage. Using the same NMR techniques as for the dimer, it was found that the pool of tetramers consisted of the following two galactose tetramers: beta-Galp-(1-->4)-beta-Galp-(1-->4)-beta-Galp-(1-->4)-alpha/beta-Galp-OH and beta-Galp-(1-->4)-beta-Galp-(1-->4)-beta-Galp-(1-->3)-alpha/beta-Galp-OH. The fact that the deviating beta-(1-->3)-linked galactose was found at the reducing end of the dimer showed that this deviating linkage is present within the backbone. The beta-(1-->3)-galactosyl interruption appeared to be a common structural feature of type I arabinogalactans with a frequency ranging from approximately 1 in 160 (potato, soy, citrus) to 1 in 250 (onion).