ArticleNature communications2024
Heterogeneously deacetylated chitosans possess an unexpected regular pattern favoring acetylation at every third position.
Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Colloidal Deacetylation of Chitin Nanocrystals Results in Amorphous and Patchy Chitosan Chains.ACS nano · 2026Article
- Beyond Averages: Chitosan Dispersity Affects the Bioactivity Reproducibility on In Vitro Maize (var.Polymers · 2026Article
- Comparative Review of Microbial Chitosanases: Properties, Structures, Hydrolytic Modes and Applications.Current microbiology · 2026Review
- Cell walls of filamentous fungi - challenges and opportunities for biotechnology.Applied microbiology and biotechnology · 2025Review
- Chitosan immunomodulation: insights into mechanisms of action on immune cells and signaling pathways.RSC advances · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Chitosans are promising biopolymers for diverse applications, with material properties and bioactivities depending i.a. on their pattern of acetylation (PA). Commercial chitosans are typically produced by heterogeneous deacetylation of chitin, but whether this process yields chitosans with a random or block-wise PA has been debated for decades. Using a combination of recently developed in vitro assays and in silico modeling surprisingly revealed that both hypotheses are wrong; instead, we found a more regular PA in heterogeneously deacetylated chitosans, with acetylated units overrepresented at every third position in the polymer chain. Compared to random-PA chitosans produced by homogeneous deacetylation of chitin or chemical N-acetylation of polyglucosamine, this regular PA increases the elicitation activity in plants, and generates different product profiles and distributions after enzymatic and chemical cleavage. A regular PA may be beneficial for some applications but detrimental for others, stressing the relevance of the production process for product development.
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