Structural differences in sulfated polysaccharides: Significance for the fertilization success

Structural studies on a novel fucogalactan sulfate extracted from the brown seaweed Laminaria japonica

“…It was noteworthy that fucoidans isolated from species belonging to different orders of brown algae were differ in the structure of the main chain, which were built up of either 3-substituted or alternated 3-and 4-substituted ␣-l-fucose residues [3,4]. Algal fucoidans were mainly composed of sulfated fucose, but their molecular structure remains to be established, as the type of glycosidic bond and the distribution of the sulfate groups were still debated [5][6][7][8]. Recently it was shown that several representatives of the orders Chordariales and Laminariales contained polysaccharides with a linear backbone built up of (1 → 3)-linked ␣-l-fucopyranose residues [9].…”