Abstract

Carbohydrates are polar molecules and their conformational and anomeric equilibrium can be strongly influenced by solvents. This review provides examples of studies addressing different issues of glycochemistry, such as anomeric equilibrium, conformational changes in rings, modelling of inter-residue linkages or complex carbohydrates and formation of carbohydrate-protein complexes. All these phenomena provide benchmark systems for testing of different solvent models.

Keywords: Carbohydrate, solvation, conformation, continuum solvent model, carbohydrate-protein complexes, inter-residue linkages, glycochemistry