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Polysaccharides are major components of extracellular matrices and are often extensively modified post-synthetically to suit local requirements and developmental programmes. However, our current understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics and functional significance of these modifications is limited by a lack of suitable molecular tools. Here, we report the development of a novel non-immunological approach for producing highly selective reciprocal oligosaccharide-based probes for chitosan (the product of chitin deacetylation) and for demethylesterified homogalacturonan. Specific reciprocal binding is mediated by the unique stereochemical arrangement of oppositely charged amino and carboxy groups. Conjugation of oligosaccharides to fluorophores or gold nanoparticles enables direct and rapid imaging of homogalacturonan and chitosan with unprecedented precision in diverse plant, fungal and animal systems. We demonstrated their potential for providing new biological insights by using them to study homogalacturonan processing during Arabidopsis thaliana root cap development and by analyzing sites of chitosan deposition in fungal cell walls and arthropod exoskeletons.

Despite enormous efforts that have been made in the search for novel drugs and treatments, cancer continues to be a major public health problem. Moreover, the emergence of resistance to cancer chemotherapy often prevents complete remission. Researchers have thus turned to natural products mainly from plant origin to circumvent resistance. Pectin and pH- or heat-modified pectin have demonstrated chemopreventive and antitumoral activities against some aggressive and recurrent cancers. The focus of this review is to describe how pectin and modified pectin display these activities and what are the possible underlying mechanisms. The failure of conventional chemotherapy to reduce mortality as well as serious side effects make natural products, such as pectin-derived products, ideal candidates for exerting synergism in combination with conventional anticancer drugs.

Circular dichroism spectrometry was used on oligogalacturonides (OGAs) and showed the existence of a calcium/sodium-induced conformational state that is intermediate between single-isolated chains and calcium-associated multimer chains. This conformation is interpreted as being egg box dimers. Using the 2F4 monoclonal antibody that specifically binds such an egg box dimer conformation of pectin, the stability of OGA dimers was investigated over a period of 24 hours. The extent to which egg box dimers were recognized by the antibody was dependent on the temperature and duration of preincubation of the OGA. This suggests a "maturation" process of the egg-box structure that consists in a progressive increase in the length of the junction sequences between two chains that slide along each other in order to form a maximum number of calcium bridges and dimer ends. The maturation of egg boxes induced both a significant increase in their binding to wall-associated kinase 1 (WAK1) and an increased extracellular alkalinization when applied to Arabidopsis thaliana cell suspensions. The chemical modification of the reducing end of the OGAs largely diminished their elicitating activity but did not hinder either dimerization or binding of these end-reduced egg boxes to WAK1. We conclude that there are at least two different perception systems for egg box dimers. One binds egg box junctions and the other binds egg box ends. The relevance of these results is discussed in terms of pectic signal perception and plant-pathogen interaction.

Recently, we have reported that cell wall pectins are internalized into apical meristem root cells. In cells exposed to the fungal metabolite brefeldin A, all secretory pathways were inhibited, while endocytic pathways remained intact, resulting in accumulation of internalized cell wall pectins within brefeldin A-induced compartments. Here we report that, in addition to the already published cell wall epitopes, rhamnogalacturonan I and xyloglucans also undergo large-scale internalization into dividing root cells. Interestingly, multilamellar endosomes were identified as compartments internalizing arabinan cell wall pectins reactive to the 6D7 antibody, while large vacuole-like endosomes internalized homogalacturonans reactive to the 2F4 antibody. As all endosomes belong topographically to the exocellular space, cell wall pectins deposited in these "cell wall islands", enclosed by the plasma-membrane-derived membrane, are ideally suited to act as temporary stores for rapid formation of cell wall and generation of new plasma membrane. In accordance with this notion, we report that all cell wall pectins and xyloglucans that internalize into endosomes are highly enriched within cytokinetic cell plates and accumulate within brefeldin A compartments. On the other hand, only small amounts of the pectins reactive to the JIM7 antibody, which are produced in the Golgi apparatus, localize to cell plates and they do not accumulate within brefeldin A compartments. In conclusion, meristematic root cells have developed pathways for internalization and recycling of cell wall molecules which are relevant for plant-specific cytokinesis.

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Monoclonal antibodies have been produced that recognize a conformation of homopolygalacturonic acid (pectic acid) induced by an optimum concentration of calcium and sodium of about 1 and 150 millinormal, respectively. The epitope recognized is probably part of the dimers of pectin chains associated according to the 'egg box' model.

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