Science generally progresses in slow but deliberate increments, which are punctuated by major advances in concept or fact. However, the latter are rare and not infrequently go unrecognized when they first occur. Another event that can add spice to a field, and attract the attention of scientists from outside the discipline, is a genuine controversy. One such controversy is presented by two repo...

The deposition of the polysaccharide chitin in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell wall is temporally and spatially regulated. Chitin synthase III (Chs3p) synthesizes a ring of chitin at the onset of bud emergence, marking the base of the incipient bud. At the end of mitosis, chitin synthase II (Chs2p) deposits a disk of chitin in the mother-bud neck, forming the primary division septum. Using in...

The sugar nucleotide UDP-N-acetylglucosamine (UDP-GlcNAc) is an essential metabolite in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. In fungi, it is the precursor for the synthesis of chitin, an essential component of the fungal cell wall. UDP-N-acetylglucosamine pyrophosphorylase (UAP) is the final enzyme in eukaryotic UDP-GlcNAc biosynthesis, converting UTP and N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphate (GlcNAc-1P)...

Trimethylsilylation of chitin was studied in detail to establish a reliable method, and the properties of the resulting product were elucidated. Chitin was successfully trimethylsilylated with a mixture of hexamethyldisilazane and trimethylsilyl chloride in pyridine. Compared to alpha-chitin, beta-chitin was much more reactive and advantageous as a starting material to prepare fully substituted...

Chitin is a representative biomass resource comparable to cellulose. Although considerable efforts have been devoted to extend novel applications to chitin, lack of solubility in water and common organic solvents causes difficulties in improving its processability and functionality. Ionic liquids have paid much attention as solvents for polysaccharides. However, little has been reported regardi...

We examined the mechanism of attachment of the marine bacterium Vibrio harveyi to chitin. Wheat germ agglutinin and chitinase bind to chitin and competitively inhibited the attachment of V. harveyi to chitin, but not to cellulose. Bovine serum albumin and cellulase do not bind to chitin and had no effect on bacterial attachment to chitin. These data suggest that this bacterium recognizes specif...