Pectin Gelation and Its Assembly into Functional Materials
Naturally-occurring pectin-containing matrices are an exemplar for understanding the way Nature crafts materials from molecules, and offer a natural paradigm for the design of our own sustainable materials and devices. This chapter briefly reviews differe
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Pectin Gelation and Its Assembly into Functional Materials M. A. K. Williams
7.1 Introduction 7.1.1 A Soft Matter Exemplar Over the last few decades the appreciation of the importance of soft condensed matter, both in the biological and physical sciences, has continued to grow (Witten 1999; Poon and Andelman 2006; van der Gucht 2018). Pectin gels offer a fascinating soft matter exemplar for study (Owens et al. 1954; Thakur et al. 1997; Willats et al. 2006; Ström et al. 2007; Munarin et al. 2012a, b). From the physical science perspective the decoration of the pectic components yields multiple different interactions that can be tuned spatially and temporally through fine structure modifications and the physiochemical environment in order to manipulate the properties of assembled macroscopic matrices. From a biological perspective pectin networks in the plant cell wall (Jarvis 1984; Levesque-Tremblay et al. 2015; Braybrook and Peaucelle 2013) co-evolved with other life on Earth so that not only plants but also bacteria, fungi and insects offer a host of enzymatic tools for pectin modification and processing (Rexová-Benková and Markoviĉ 1976; Pilnik and Voragen 1993; Schols and Voragen 1996; Alkorta et al. 1998; Kent et al. 2016). From a materials engineering perspective, learning how to make materials and devices from pectic substrates holds the promise of harnessing their biocompatible, reconfigurable and sustainable nature, as we turn our sights toward a zero-waste society (Di Giacomo
M. A. K. Williams (*) School of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Wellington, New Zealand The Riddet Institute, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 V. Kontogiorgos (ed.), Pectin: Technological and Physiological Properties, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53421-9_7
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et al. 2015; Cifarelli et al. 2016; Sun et al. 2017, 2018; Mohammadinejad et al. 2019; Vanitha and Khan 2019; Thakur et al. 2019).
7.1.2 Evolved Pectin Networks Pectin networks pervade the biosphere on planet Earth. They are the epitome of smart responsive matrices whose properties are controlled in order to fulfil vital physiological roles, in particular in the plant kingdom (Jarvis 1984; Levesque- Tremblay et al. 2015; Braybrook and Peaucelle 2013). The evolution of the fine structures of these key biological polyelectrolytes has led to a variety of enzymatically modifiable components, (predominantly homo- and rhamno-galacturonans), that can occur in different ratios and with various patterns of substituent groups and sidechains, and can be linked chemically and physically to themselves and to other cell wall components (Thibault and Ralet 2008; Mohnen 2008; Sila et al. 2009; Round et al. 2010; Voragen et al. 2013; Anderson 2019). The sheer amount of genes annotated as coding for pectin-modifying enzymes in plant genomes (Henrissat et al.
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