Classical molecular dynamics simulations have been combined to quantum (DFT) calculations of 13 C NMR parameters in order to relate the experimental spectrum of the double-helix form of the amylose B-polymorph in highly crystalline conditions not only to its 3D structure but also to the arrangement of atoms in the crystal lattice. Structures obtained from these simulations or from geometry optimizations procedure at the DFT level have shown the presence of hydrogen bond networks between sugars of the same helix or between residues of the two chains of the double helix. 13 C NMR parameter calculations have revealed the impact of such network on the chemical shifts of carbon atoms. In addition, DFT calculations using periodic boundary conditions were compulsory to highlight the presence of two types of sugar within the crystal sample. It allows us to confirm theoretically, the experimental hypothesis that the existence of two distinct sugar types in the NMR spectrum is a consequence of crystal packing.
Introduction.Amylose, one of the major constituents of starch with amylopectin, is an essentially linear polymer composed of glucose residues linked in [α-1→4] and is often used to model the crystalline parts of starch. Most of the experimental structures are originated from X-ray diffraction studies [1][2][3][4] and it is well known that it can adopt different helical conformations, depending on its environment. The single helical structure called the V-polymorph, has been proven to encapsulate guest molecules of various sizes, such as Iodine 5 , flavor molecules 6,7 or even fatty acids [8][9][10][11] . The double helical structures are called A or B-polymorphs (Figure 1) depending on the crystal packing conditions and are known to be present in highly crystalline material amongst starch. The method of choice used for the study of amylose structure is 13 C solid-state NMR spectroscopy 9,10,12-14 ,