Y. Kawakami et al., NOVEL FUCOSYLTETRAHEXOSYLCERAMIDE IN PLEROCERCOIDS OF THE PARASITE SPIROMETRA-ERINACEI, European journal of biochemistry, 239(3), 1996, pp. 905-911
A novel glycosphingolipid, fucosyltetrahexosylceramide, has been isola
ted from the plerocercoids of a tapeworm, Spirometra erinacei, and cha
racterized by permethylation analysis, sequential degradation with exo
glycosidases, fast atom bombardment MS and H-1-NMR. The chemical struc
ture was determined to be as follows. [GRAPHICS] This glycosphingolipi
d was tentatively designated as GalSEGLx, in which the carbohydrate st
ructure is characterized by an additional galactose molecule attached
to the reducing-end galactose of SEGLx [Gal beta-4(Fuc alpha-3)Glc bet
a-3Gal beta Cer], which was previously determined by us [Kawakami, Y.,
Nakamura, K., Kojima, H., Suzuki, M., Inagaki, F., Suzuki, A., Sonoki
, S., Uchida, A., Murata, Y. & Tamai, Y. (1993) J. Biochem. 114, 677-6
83], through a beta 1-6 linkage. The ceramide contained sphinganine an
d 4D-hydroxysphinganine in an about equimolar ratio, and a non-hydroxy
fatty acid with carbon atoms ranging from 16 to 28, 26:0, 28:0 and 28
:1 being major components. Based on the finding that a novel carbohydr
ate structure, Gal beta-4Glc beta-3Gal, was commonly found in glycosph
ingolipids from the parasite, S. erinacei, we here propose the terms,
spirometo series, for this core structure series, and spirometosides,
for glycosphingolipids having this carbohydrate structure.