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Polysaccharides of marine diatoms with special reference to Chaetoceros species

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Abstract

The alkali-soluble polysaccharides of the cell wall from 7 different marine diatoms were shown to contain the monosaccharides rhamnose, fucose, galactose, mannose and xylose. The relative amounts of rhamnose and fucose varied widely from one species to another, from the very rhamnose-rich Chaetoceros affinis to Thalassiosira gravida, where no rhamnose was found. All Chaetoceros species were found to have a high content of rhamnose. Also the proportion of mannose to galactose varied widely from species to species. The observed change in monomer composition from the logarithmic to the stationary growth phase is explained by assuming the alkali-soluble fraction to be a mixture of polysaccharides. The soluble, extracellular polysaccharides from 4 of the diatoms were also investigated. The products from C. affinis and C. curvisetus were homogeneous and composed of only 3 monomers: rhamnose, fucose and galactose. The extracellular polysaccharide composition in all species investigated was quite different from the composition of the cellular alkali-soluble fraction. The ecological aspects of these soluble polysaccharides may prove of considerable interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine Biochemistry, University of Trondheim, Trondheim, Norway

    A. Haug & S. Myklestad

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  1. A. Haug
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  2. S. Myklestad
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Communicated by O. Kinne, Hamburg

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Haug, A., Myklestad, S. Polysaccharides of marine diatoms with special reference to Chaetoceros species. Marine Biology 34, 217–222 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00388798

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00388798

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