Raman Spectroscopy and Density Functional Theory Calculations of β-Glucans and Chitins in Fungal Cell Walls

The fungal wallis a heterogeneous structure consisting of lipids and carbo-hydrates such as chitin, 1,3-β-glucan and 1,6-β-glucan. Asobserved by spectroscopic analysis, the composition of thecell wall frequently varies in a noticeable way betweenspecies of fungi. (Figure 1) depicts diagrammatic representa-tions of parts of fungal cell walls.