PREFACE ost fungi produce some type of polysaccharide that can be found in cell membranes or walls and as exocellular components. The role of these polysaccharides is not well understood, but in some cases they function as structural components of the fungal cell wall. This does not mean that fungal polysaccharides do not have important roles. For example, fungal polysaccharides are involved directly in host-pathogen interactions between fungi in mammals and plants. Also, surface exocellular polysaccharides of industrially useful fungi (yeast in particular) have been studied in great detail in order to determine their role in various specific applications. Like bacterial polysaccharides, fungal polysaccharides of several types have been discovered that vary widely in their sugar composition, linkage types, molecular parameters, and physical properties. This volume focuses on various aspects of fungal polysaccharide research that are currently being carried on throughout the world. Therefore, topics in this volume vary from the genetics of polysaccharide biosynthesis to host-pathogen interactions and from immunochemistry to the chemical and physical characterization of specific and interesting fungal polysaccharides that have industrial utility.
Downloaded by 71.54.37.73 on February 27, 2018 | https://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: June 10, 1980 | doi: 10.1021/bk-1980-0126.pr001
M
Kelco, Division of PAUL A. SANDFORD
Merck & Co., Inc. San Diego, CA 92123 Tohoku University KAZUO MATSUDA
Sendai, 980 Japan October 23, 1979
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Sandford and Matsuda; Fungal Polysaccharides ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1980.
