Routine Services
Monosaccharide Composition Analysis
Monosaccharide composition analysis (sugar residue analysis) quantifies the residues of polysaccharides, oligosaccharides or glycoproteins by GC-MS. It gives information on mole % and % of overall carbohydrate in the sample, like glucose, mannose, galactose, xylose, rhamnose, arabinose, fucose, N-acetyl glucosamine, N-acetyl galactosamine, N-acetyl neuraminic acid, N-glycoly neuraminic acid, galacturonic acid, glucuronic acid (many more) including alditol and methylated residues. Please contact us to discuss your specific requirements, and do not let limited sample amount deter you from requesting our services.
Amount of Sample Needed for Composition Analysis
If you have no knowledge of the nature of the sugar constituents of your sample and you desire a complete composition analysis, a minimum of 100 micrograms of carbohydrate is required. If you have considerably smaller amounts of carbohydrate sample, we can make special arrangements to determine the composition of your sample. Please contact us to discuss your specific requirements, and do not let limited sample amount deter you from requesting our services.
General Criteria for Sample Preparation
Samples must be free of salts. If the sample is a glycoprotein, it can be dialyzed and then lyophilized. If the sample is an oligosaccharide, it can be desalted by size-exclusion chromatography on a Bio-Gel P-2 or Sephadex G-10 column.
Rare Sugar Residues and Modifications
The CCRC has over 30 years of experience with monosaccharide analysis of polysaccharides and glycoproteins and has accumulated a vast library of spectra on unusual monosaccharides and their modifications. We have the experience and expertise to determine the glycosyl residues of any non-routine glycosyl residue.
The glycosyl composition analysis experiment does NOT give information on absolute configuration (D or L) of monosaccharides. The absolute configuration of monosaccharides can be determined with additional experiments at an additional cost.