REVIEW ARTICLE
β -(1,4)-Polyglucuronic Acids – An Overview
M.L. Tavernier1, C. Delattre2, E. Petit1, P. Michaud3, *
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2008Volume: 2
First Page: 73
Last Page: 86
Publisher ID: TOBIOTJ-2-73
DOI: 10.2174/1874070700802010073
Article History:
Received Date: 17/09/2007Revision Received Date: 26/02/2008
Acceptance Date: 26/02/2008
Electronic publication date: 19/3/2008
Collection year: 2008
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open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Polyuronides are an acidic class of polysaccharides with interesting rheological and biological properties. However, except pectin and alginate, the structural variability of this class of polysaccharides is poor and low described in literature. In this context, a new generation of polyuronides has been isolated from two sources in the middle of the 90’s. Firstly, a bacterial β -(1,4) polyglucuronic acid called glucuronan was identified as the sole exopolysaccharide produced by a bacteria belonging to the Rhizobiaceae family. Secondly, the development of the TEMPO chemistry led to the production at large scale of oxidized cellulose called cellouronate. Both new polyuronides were largely patented and found applications in several industrial areas. Moreover, the biodegradation study of these polysaccharides has led to the identification of a new family of polysaccharide lyases very specific for these substrates. This review focuses on the actual knowledge of this class of acidic polysaccharides and on the enzymes acting about them.