Background

Polysaccharides are one of the major group of bioactive macromolecular derived from plants, bacteria, fungi and seaweeds. Atomic force microscopy (AFM), a type of scanning probe microscopy, is a powerful technology to visualize biopolymers, such as polysaccharides and proteins, up to a single molecular level in “near-native” conditions.

Scope and approach

This review gives a brief description of AFM technology involved in polysaccharide research in addition to discussion of factors that might influence polysaccharide imaging. More importantly, its contribution to research progress of a variety of well characterized polysaccharides, including pectin, xanthan, carrageenan, curdlan, scleroglucan, xyloglucan, arabinoxylan, starch, etc., and the detailed nanostructure information was summarized.

Key findings and conclusions

AFM provides a unique insight into polysaccharide studies in terms of morphological features and molecular characteristics, such as heights (diameters), width, contour length, end-to-end distance, polydispersity, etc. Besides, other promising aspects included probing molecular motion and assemblies, as well as visualizing conformation behavior under different conditions.

中文翻译：

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原子力显微镜在多糖显微分析中的应用

背景

多糖是衍生自植物，细菌，真菌和海藻的主要生物活性大分子之一。原子力显微镜（AFM）是一种扫描探针显微镜，是一项功能强大的技术，可以在“近自然”条件下可视化生物聚合物，例如多糖和蛋白质，直至单个分子水平。

范围和方法

除了对可能影响多糖成像的因素的讨论之外，本综述还简要介绍了参与多糖研究的AFM技术。更重要的是，它对多种表征良好的多糖的研究进展做出了贡献，包括果胶，黄原胶，角叉菜胶，柯德兰，硬葡聚糖，木葡聚糖，阿拉伯木聚糖，淀粉等，并总结了详细的纳米结构信息。

主要发现和结论

AFM从形态特征和分子特性（例如高度（直径），宽度，轮廓长度，端到端距离，多分散性等）提供了对多糖研究的独特见解。此外，其他有前途的方面还包括探测分子运动和装配，以及可视化在不同条件下的构象行为。