THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF OLIGOSACCHARIDE CONFORMATION

This review covers the wealth of significant advances that have been made during the past year in the field of theoretical investigations of oligosaccharides, including glycolipids. Most of the structural determinations have been conducted using state of the art molecular mechanics calculations. At the same time, disciplined methodologies are at last proving capable of characterizing both the dynamic behaviour and the solvation features of oligosaccharides. The conformational flexibility of oligosaccharides in general is becoming more widely acknowledged. While experimental techniques are providing evidence for these internal motions, theoretical approaches are being developed to deal with the complications arising from such features. Similarly, new methods are emerging for modeling carbohydrates in interactions with either a membrane surface or a protein combining site.