Abstract
Complex carbohydrates have many functions but, until recently, their functions were thought to be limited to serving as structural polymers and energy reserves. It is now well established that complex carbohydrates play an important role in biological recognition. In their role as recognition agents, complex carbohydrates are: receptors for phage and bacteriocins; specific surface antigens that can determine the pathogenicity of microbes, and the mating type, the blood group type, and tissue type of eukaryotic cells; highly specific receptors in eukaryotes for viruses, bacteria, hormones, and toxins; and determinants of where glycoproteins go within cells, when they are secreted, and when they are taken up. We have now come to recognize that certain complex carbohydrates are chemical messengers, that they are, in fact, biological regulatory molecules. Results of research in our laboratory have led us to believe that these chemical messengers are especially important in regulating growth, development, reproduction, and disease resistance in plants.
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Albersheim, P. et al. (1983). Oligosaccharins: Naturally Occurring Carbohydrates with Biological Regulatory Functions. In: Ciferri, O., Dure, L. (eds) Structure and Function of Plant Genomes. NATO Advanced Science Institutes Series, vol 63. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4538-1_30
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4538-1_30
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