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Abstract
In the present work, we developed a miniaturized method for determining amylopectin chain length distribution (CLD) by fluorescence-assisted capillary electrophoresis (FACE). The method relies on single granule entrapping into capillaries followed by direct starch gelatinization and amylopectin debranching on carbograph-based solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridges. Sample desalting on HypersepTM tips following APTS-labelling and the use of nanovials allowed for the fluorescence analysis of weakly diluted samples. Consequently, method sensitivity was improved by 500-fold which is compatible with the analysis of single potato starch granules. The method was implemented to determine CLD profiles of single starch granules ranging from 50 to 100 µm in diameter. In these experiments, the relative proportion of starch glucans of up to 30 degrees of polymerization (DP) could be quantified.
