In vivo chitin-cadmium complexation in cell wall of Neurospora crassa

Fungal cell wall, mainly composed of chitin, an N-acetylglucosamine polymer, is known to participate in heavy metal detoxification. In the present study, an effort was made to elucidate the sites involved in complexation of cadmium by the chitin material of cell wall of Neurospora crassa. Based on the results of physical techniques, such as solid-state C-13-NMR, X-ray diffraction, IR and molecular modeling, a structure was proposed for the chitin-cadmium complex. The ring and C-3 hydroxyl oxygens of N-acetylglucosamine were implicated in the complexation of cadmium by the chitin of the fungal cell wall. The studies further revealed that the conformation of chitin did not alter after cadmium complexation. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.