High-performance anion-exchange chromatography — DAD as a tool for the identification and quantification of oligogalacturonic acids in pectin depolymerisation

High-performance anion-exchange chromatography (HPAEC) coupled with a diode array detector (DAD) was used to identify and quantify oligogalacturonic acid components in pectins. Purified pectin lyase and polygalacturonase were used to generate unsaturated and saturated oligomers from pectins and sodium polygalacturonate, respectively. This method resulted in a good separation of saturated and unsaturated oligomers up to DP 13. It allowed us to follow polygalacturonase and pectate lyase depolymerisation pathways simultaneously.