Carbohydrates are essential biomolecules that decorate cell membranes and proteins in organisms. They are important both as structural elements and as identification markers. Many biological and pathogenic processes rely on the identification of carbohydrates by proteins, thereby making them attractive as molecular blueprints for drugs. This thesis describes how NMR spectroscopy can be utilized to study carbohydrates in solution at a molecular level. This versatile technique facilitates for investigations of (i) shapes, (ii) motions and (iii) interactions.

A conformational study of an E. coli O-antigen was performed by calculating atomic distances from NMR NOESY experiments. The acquired data was utilized to validate MD simulations of the LPS embedded in a membrane. The agreement between experimental and calculated data was good and deviations were proven to arise from spin-diffusion. In another study presented herein, both the conformation and the dynamic behavior of amide side-chains linked to derivatives of D-Fucp3N, a sugar found in the O-antigen of bacteria, were investigated. J-couplings facilitated a conformational analysis and ¹³C saturation transfer NMR experiments were utilized to measure rate constants of amide cis-trans isomerizations.

¹³C NMR relaxation and ¹H PFG diffusion measurements were carried out to explore and describe the molecular motion of mannofullerenes. The dominating motions of the mannofullerene spectral density were found to be related to pulsating motions of the linkers rather than global rotational diffusion. The promising inhibition of Ebola viruses identified for a larger mannofullerene can thus be explained by an efficient rebinding mechanism that arises from the observed flexibility in the linker.

Molecular interactions between sugars and caffeine in water were studied by monitoring chemical shift displacements in titrations. The magnitude of the chemical shift displacements indicate that the binding occurs by a face to face stacking of the aromatic plane of caffeine to the ring plane of the sugar, and that the interaction is at least partly driven by solvation effects. Also, the binding of a Shigella flexneri serotype Y octasaccharide to a bacteriophage Sf6 tail spike protein was investigated. This interaction was studied by ¹H STD NMR and trNOESY experiments. A quantitative analysis of the STD data was performed employing a newly developed method, CORCEMA-ST-CSD, that is able to simulate STD data more accurately since the line broadening of protein resonances are accounted for in the calculations.

The outer surface of bacteria is composed of around 75% carbohydrates, which are vital for the bacteria to survive and communicate with the host biological system. The thesis discusses different properties of carbohydrates that are essential for understanding the bacterial behavior in biological systems. The first three chapters give an overview of carbohydrates.

The fourth chapter discusses the synthesis of four amide-substituted 3,6-dideoxy-α-D-galactopyranosides, namely, methyl α-3,6-dideoxy-3-formamido-, acetamido-, (R)-3-hydroxybutyramido-, and (4-hydroxybutyramido)-D-galactopyranoside. These sugars were found as components of some bacterial O-antigens; the study is a step toward the synthesis of oligosaccharides that contain them. The fifth chapter describes the exchange kinetics of the formyl and acetyl derivatives that were synthesized. Both of them have two conformational states for the amide side-chain. ¹³C-NMR saturation transfer experiments are utilized for these measurements to reveal more about their properties in solution.

In chaptr six, NMR and conformational analysis of oligosaccharides related to the O-antigen of Yersinia enterocolitica O:3 bacteria were carried out to obtain more information regarding their 3D structure.

Chapter seven is focusing on the development of CASPER, a program for rapid assignment of ¹H- and ¹³C-NMR chemical shifts of bacterial lipopolysaccharides, by adding more sugars into its database and testing it for naturally occurring LPS as well as extending the scope for synthetic carbohydrates, which is planned to be developed further in the future.