An international team of scientists including the University of Adelaide has discovered a new complex carbohydrate in moss that could possibly be exploited for health or other uses.
An international team of scientists including the University of Adelaide has discovered a new complex carbohydrate in moss that could possibly be exploited for health or other uses.
The scientists, from Australia’s ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell Walls and University of Rhode Island, in the US, say the polysaccharide looks a bit like the gut-friendly, health-promoting beta glucan found in oats and other cereals. A polysaccharide is a complex carbohydrate made up of sugar molecules.
Led by Professor Rachel Burton, in the University of Adelaide’s School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, and Professor Alison Roberts, University of Rhode Island, the research team was looking into the evolutionary history of the beta glucan when they made this discovery. The research has been published in The Plant Cell.
Beta glucan, another polysaccharide, is a dietary fibre that is known to have many health benefits. It is abundant in cereals such as oats and barley, but has not been found in moss despite the plants having similar relevant genes.
Read more at University of Adelaide
Image: Moss cells showing the location of the protein that makes the new polysaccharide, arabinoglucan. (Credit: University of Rhode Island)
