Linkage Analysis and Compositional Studies of β- Glucan from Saccharomyces Cerevisiae and Compositional Studies of Mannan from Candida Albicans

The efficacy of a novel carbohydrate extraction procedure was investigated with methylation analysis and alditol acetate method by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. A published extraction procedure for β-glucans was compared to one developed in house. Both procedures gave a dominant glucose peak in the Gas chromatogram indicative of successful β-glucan isolation. Further linkage studies showed four linkage positions for β-glucans isolated with the chromatogram for the published method indicated structure degradation. The results for mannan isolated with 50 mM base gave mannose as a dominant component compared to mannan isolated with 50 mM acid. Base extracted mannan also indicated a good yield of mannan in hyphal form of Candida albicans. This has not been reported with other published isolation methods. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am most thankful to Jehovah God for His abundant mercies and undeserved kindness shown towards me throughout my studies. I would like to sincerely thank Dr. Rachel Greene and Dr. Cassandra Eagle for their mentorship, patience, understanding, and motivation. In addition, a big thank you to Dr. Aleksey Vasiliev and Dr. Marina Roginskaya for serving as committee members. Cook and Lisa Bertolo for their support throughout this project. My love goes to my dear fiancé Patrick, my parents and siblings, for their prayers, support and encouragement. I also thank the Johnson City English congregation of Jehovah's witnesses for making my stay in the USA enjoyable. It was incredible getting to know you all as a family. I would like to acknowledge Francis, Shadrack and James in the Greene research group for letting me use their samples for analysis. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the faculty, staff, and all graduate students of the Chemistry Department at ETSU for their assistance and support throughout my stay in the Chemistry Department.