The trisaccharide 3,6-di-O-(alpha-D-mannopyranosyl)-D-mannose, which is present in all asparagine-linked carbohydrates, was previously shown by titration microcalorimetry to bind to the lectin concanavalin A (ConA) with nearly -6 kcal mol-1 greater enthalpy change and 60-fold higher affinity than methyl-alpha-D-mannopyranoside (Mandal, D. K., Kishore, N., and Brewer, C. F. (1994) Biochemistry 33, 1149-1156). Similar studies of the binding of a series of monodeoxy derivatives of the alpha(1-3) residue of the trimannoside showed that this arm was required for high affinity binding (Mandal, D. K., Bhattacharyya, L., Koenig, S. H., Brown, R. D., III, Oscarson, S., and Brewer, C. F. (1994) Biochemistry 33, 1157-1162). In the present paper, a series of monodeoxy derivatives of the alpha(1-6) arm and "core" Man residue of the trimannoside as well as dideoxy and trideoxy analogs were synthesized. Isothermal titration microcalorimetry experiments establish that the 3-, 4-, and 6-hydroxyl groups of the alpha(1-6)Man residue of the trimannoside binds to the lectin, along with the 2- and 4-hydroxyl groups of the core Man residue and the 3- and 4-hydroxyl groups of the alpha(1-3)Man residue. Dideoxy analogs and trideoxy analogs showed losses of affinities and enthalpy values consistent with losses in binding of specific hydroxyl groups of the trimannoside. The free energy and enthalpy contributions to binding of individual hydroxyl groups of the trimannoside determined from the corresponding monodeoxy analogs are observed to be nonlinear, indicating differential contributions of the solvent and protein to the thermodynamics of binding of the analogs. The thermodynamic solution data agree well with the recent x-ray crystal structure of ConA complexed with the trimannoside (Naismith, J. H., and Field, R. A. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 972-976).