Rapid Assay And Detection Of Carbohydrates In Samples Using MolecularMarkers
- Technology Application
- The assay has several likely applications with regard to carrageenan probes. Commercially-ownedcarrageenan farms and the processors which buy the raw seaweed from farmers may use the method totest the quality of plants. Fast-growing clones do not necessarily produce carrageenan of good quality.When correlated with commercial quality specifications, the method will allow rapid evaluation of seaweedquality and could help to stabilize source quality. Since only a small piece of a plant is needed to test, themethod can also contribute to Food industry which uses carrageenan as an additive can have several applications for the method. Forexample, a major fast food chain recently introduced a lower fat, lower cholesterol hamburger patty thathas replaced the fat in the meat with water and carrageenan as additive for gelling and texture. This assaycan be used to evaluate batch consistency from suppliers and to monitor levels in food product batches. Inaddition, there is considerable interest in testing the types and levels of carbohydrate additives incompetitors' products
- Detailed Technology Description
- None
- Others
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Tech ID/UC Case
18169/1991-033-0
Related Cases
1991-033-0
- *Abstract
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This Invention employs monoclonal antibodies and direct gelling probes as molecular markers specific for gelling and nongelling parts of plant and bacterial carbohydrates.
This invention describes a rapid assay which can detect these carbohydrates and analyze their composition in very small samples. The sample, such as ice cream or hamburger, is blotted onto a membrane, reacted with the molecular marker and then visualized with a marker detection system. Multiple samples can be analyzed rapidly and efficiently using this method.
Gelling probes have been tested for several carbohydrates: alginate, pectate, carrageenan and agarose. These probes consist of short gelling subunits conjugated to markers. The direct gelling probes bind to the homologous carbohydrate in the sample on the blot only in the presence of the appropriate gelling ion or after a specific thermal change, depending on the specific carbohydrate system. The direct gelling probes can be identified on the filter paper similar to DNA probes.
- *Principal Investigator
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Name: Alexander Karu
Department:
Name: WATSON M. LAETSCH
Department:
Name: VALERIE VREELAND
Department:
Name: EARL ZABLACKIS
Department:
- Country/Region
- USA
