LINKAGE ANALYSIS USING LINDBERG METHOD

This chapter discusses linkage analysis using Lindberg method. Linkage analysis or methylation analysis as practiced today was developed in Professor Bengt Lindberg's laboratories in the late 1960s in Stockholm, Sweden. Two discoveries previously made this a tedious task of linkage analysis applicable to biological samples. The first was the report by Hakomori that glycolipids could be completely methylated (permethylated) in one step. Second was the discovery by Björndal, Svensson, and Lindberg that partially methylated alditol acetates could be separated by gas chromatography and identified by simple fragmentation rules by mass spectrometry. The strategies and methods relevant to linkage analysis, which is the subject of this chapter, are based on the principle that they must be applicable to as many types of sugars and linkages as possible. Furthermore, the experimental approaches have to be based on established carbohydrate properties and chemical reaction mechanisms. Before attempting to do a structural analysis, it is essential to obtain all possible information regarding the unknown. Knowledge of biological origin and of principal biosynthetic pathways reveals essential information related to the structure of the material under investigation. © 1990, Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.