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Encyclopedia of Lipidomics pp 1–5Cite as

Digalactosyldiacylglycerol (DGDG) in Plants: Functional Diversity of

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Synonyms

Diacylglycerol; Glycerolipids; Membrane lipids

Definitions

Glycolipids are lipids with a sugar moiety attached by a glycosidic bond to a lipid molecule. The saccharide residue can include a wide variety of molecules from small sugar units to long polysaccharide chains. Esters of lipids with glucose, galactose, and sucrose are the major glycolipids in plant cells.

Structure and Occurrence

Digalactosyldiacylglycerol (DGDG) is a neutral glycolipid where two residues of galactose (digalactan) are bound to the glycerol at sn-3 position to form a hydrophilic head group, whereas sn-1 and sn-2 positions of the glycerol backbone are esterified with two acyl chains (Fig. 1). The complete structure of DGDG is 1,2-diacyl-3-O-(α-d-galactopyranosyl-(1 → 6)-O-β-d-galactopyranosyl)-sn-glycerol) and was originally described by Carter et al. (1956). After monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG), DGDG is a second most abundant galactoglycerolipid found in photosynthetic membranes of plants,...

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Abbreviations

DAG:

Diacylglycerol

DGD:

Digalactosyldiacylglycerol synthase

DGDG:

Digalactosyldiacylglycerol

MGD:

Monogalactosyldiacylglycerol synthase

MGDG:

Monogalactosyldiacylglycerol

PS II:

Photosystem II

TAG:

Triacylglycerol

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Biochemistry, Georg-August-University Goettingen, Albrecht-von-Haller-Institute for Plant Sciences, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 11, 37077, Goettingen, Germany

    Agnieszka Zienkiewicz

Authors
  1. Agnieszka Zienkiewicz
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Correspondence to Agnieszka Zienkiewicz .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine Centre for Life Sciences, Singapore, Singapore

    Markus R. Wenk

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Zienkiewicz, A. (2017). Digalactosyldiacylglycerol (DGDG) in Plants: Functional Diversity of. In: Wenk, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Lipidomics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7864-1_142-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7864-1_142-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-94-007-7864-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-7864-1

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