Exploration of the conformational spaces of flexible oligosaccharides is essential to gain deeper insights into their functional mechanisms. Here we characterised dynamic conformation of a high-mannose-type dodecasaccharide with a terminal glucose residue, a critical determinant recognised by molecular chaperones. The dodecasaccharide was prepared by our developed chemoenzymatic technique, which uses 13 C labelling and lanthanide tagging to detect conformation-dependent paramagnetic effects by NMR spectroscopy. The NMR-validated molecular dynamics simulation produced the dynamic conformational ensemble of the dodecasaccharide. This determined its spatial distribution as well as the glycosidic linkage conformation of the terminal glucose determinant. Moreover, comparison of our results with previously reported crystallographic data indicates that the chaperone binding to its target oligosaccharides involves an induced-fit mechanism.
Keywords: NMR spectroscopy; lanthanide; molecular chaperons; molecular dynamics; oligosaccharides.
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