Plant and Cell Physiology Advance Access published online on December 13, 2006
Plant and Cell Physiology, doi:10.1093/pcp/pcl053
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Spectroscopic and biochemical analysis of regions of the cell wall of the unicellular "mannan weed", Acetabularia acetabulum
1Department of Biology, Center for Developmental Biology & Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Box 35325, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-5325 USA;
2Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Purdue University, W. Lafayette, Indiana 47907-2054 USA;
3Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z1;
4Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4
Corresponding author: Mandoli, Dina F. Department of Biology, Center for Developmental Biology & Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Box 355325, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-5325, Ph: (206)-543-8917, Fax: (206) 685-1728, mandoli{at}u.washington.edu
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Abstract |
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Although the Dasycladalean alga Acetabularia acetabulum has long been known to contain mannan-rich walls, it is not known to what extent wall composition varies as a function of the elaborate cellular differentiation of this cell nor is has it been determined what other polysaccharides accompany the mannans. Cell walls were prepared from rhizoids, stalks, hairs, hair scars, apical septa, gametophores, and gametangia, and subjected to NMR and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and analyzed for monosaccharide composition and linkage, although material limitations prevented some cell regions from being analyzed by some of the methods. In diplophase, walls contain a para-crystalline mannan, with other polysaccharides accounting for 20 to 10% of the wall mass; in haplophase, gametangia have a cellulosic wall, with mannans and other polymers representing about a quarter of the mass. In the walls of the diplophase, the mannan appears less crystalline than typical of cellulose. The walls of both diploid and haploid phases contain little if any xyloglucan or pectic polysaccharides, but appear to contain small amounts of a homorhamnan, galactomannans and glucogalactomannans and branched xylans. These ancillary polysaccharides are approximately as abundant in the cellulose rich gametangia as in the mannan rich diplophase. In the diplophase, different regions of the cell differ modestly but reproducibly in the composition of the cell wall. These results suggest unique cell wall architecture for the mannan-rich cell walls of the Dasycladales.
Keywords: Acetabularia acetabulum - cellulose - FTIR - linkage analysis - Dasycladales - mannan weed
*Present address: Erin Dunn c/o University of California San Diego, Biology Graduate Student Affairs, 0348, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0348
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