LBIK10201U Plant Polysaccharides: Biology, Structure and Applications

Volume 2013/2014
Content
This course will provide a comprehensive understanding of plant polysaccharides and will use an integrated series of lectures and practical exercises to cover fundamental biology and applied themes. The key lectures will be provided by members the three LIFE departments involved, but an important feature of the course will be the involvement of invited outside speakers. Students will also have opportunities to get hands-on practical experience with state of the art techniques for glycan analysis including carbohydrate microarrays. The course will be spilt into three consecutive interrelated modules. Module 1 will deal mostly will polysaccharides as they occur in plants, especially important food crops and will cover biosynthesis, diversity, evolution and structure. Module 2 will concentrate on state of the art analytical techniques for polysaccharide analysis with a particular emphasis on relating structure to function and the effects of enzymatic and chemical modifications. In Module 3, students will learn about the applied aspects of plant polysaccharides. This will ex. include plant fibres and health, advanced functional food ingredients, nutraceuticals and therapeutics, novel bio-materials and the production of plant polysaccharides within a bio-refinery context.

Module 1: Polysaccharides in planta
• The biological sources of plant polysaccharides
• Plant cell walls
• Starch
• Polysaccharide biosynthesis
• Polysaccharide evolution and diversity

Module 2: Polysaccharide structure, analysis and functionality 
• Relating polysaccharide structure and function
• Polysaccharide active enzymes
• Carbohydrate microarrays
• Glycan recognition, monoclonal antibodies and carbohydrate binding modules 
• Carbohydrate molecular modelling
• Glycomics, data mining, multivariate data analysis
• Near infra red- infra red-, and Raman- spectroscopy
• Nuclear magnetic resonance

Module 3: The importance of plant polysaccharides in health and industry ex. 
• Functional food ingredients introduction
• Pectins, carrageenans and other hydrocolloids
• Glucans and arabinoxylans
• Fibre function, resistant starch and health
• Pectin and cancer
• Prebiotics
Learning Outcome
The primary outcomes will be a sound knowledge of the biology and utilization of plant polysaccharides. After completing the course, students should be able to:

Knowledge
• Describe the processes of polysaccharide biosynthesis, occurrence and diversity in the plant kingdom (including micro- and macro-algae).
• Demonstrate a practical knowledge of cutting-edge techniques for polysaccharide analysis, including the construction and use of carbohydrate microarrays for high throughput screening.
• Describe the activities and importance of industries based on plant polysaccharides.
• Demonstrate a detailed understanding of the use of plant polysaccharides as functional food ingredients, nutraceuticals, therapeutics and as novel bio materials.
• Describe the health effects of plant fibres.

Skills
• Apply their knowledge to critically assess scientific literature.
• Use selected techniques for polysaccharide analysis.
• Apply their knowledge to evaluate the outcome of polysaccharide analyses.
• Describe how fundamental polysaccharide biology is related to downstream industrial uses.

Competences
• Work independently and with scientific literature.
• Prepare and present oral and written work
• Design experiments related to polysaccharide biology and applications
Literature
A mixture of original research papers, reviews articles and text book chapters. To be announced.
Lectures, theoretical and practical exercises. Report on the laboratory work.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Exam
  • 1
  • Lectures
  • 30
  • Practical exercises
  • 30
  • Preparation
  • 141
  • Theory exercises
  • 4
  • Total
  • 206
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Oral examination, 20 min
Description of Examination: 20 minute oral exam within the theoretical and practical aspects of the course, with 20 minutes preparation time.
Exam registration requirements
An approved written report on the practical exercise
Aid
Written aids allowed
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
one internal examiner
Criteria for exam assesment
Focus on knowledge of the biology and utilization of plant polysaccharides and knowledge of the techniques used.