Carbon-13 relaxation data are reported for exocyclic groups of hexopyranosyl sugar residues in the repeating unit within the Escherichia coli O91 O-antigen polysaccharide in a dilute D2O solution. The measurements of T (1), T (2) and heteronuclear nuclear Overhauser enhancements were carried out at 310 K at two magnetic fields (16.4 T, 21.1 T).
The data were analyzed using the standard and extended Lipari-Szabo models, as well as a conformational jump model. The extended version of the Lipari-Szabo and the two-site jump models were most successful for the hydroxymethyl groups of Gal and GlcNAc sugar residues.
Different dynamics was found for the hydroxymethyl groups associated with different configurations (d-gluco, d-galacto) of the sugar residues, the latter being faster than the former.