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Articles

Isolation of Polysaccharides Sulfated during Early Embryogenesis in Fucus¹

^a Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331

Beginning 10 hours after fertilization, zygotes of Fucus distichus L. Powell incorporate ³⁵S into polysaccharides as a sulfate ester of fucose. These sulfated polysaccharides are sequestered in only the rhizoid cell of the two-celled embryo and can serve as a marker of cellular differentiation. Zygotes were pulsed at different times after fertilization with Na₂³⁵SO₄ to identify and isolate the fucans localized within the region of cytoplasm destined to become the rhizoid cell. Low molecular weight pools of ³⁵S were saturated within 60 minutes, with the greatest incorporation into ethanol-soluble and insoluble fractions occurring with 0.1 mM Na₂SO₄ in the artificial sea water medium. At the time of rhizoid formation, four fucose-containing polysaccharide fractions incorporated ³⁵S. When each fraction was subjected to diethylaminoethyl chromatography, two components were eluted with KCl that contained over 84% of the fucose and 93% of the ³⁵S of the particular fraction. Highvoltage paper electrophoresis of each fraction also resulted in the separation of these two major components. Both components from each of the four fractions behaved identically when separated by diethylaminoethyl chromatography and paper electrophoresis. By comparing the incorporation of ³⁵S into the polysaccharide fractions at 4 and 16 hours after fertilization, the fucan-sulfate components that are localized in the cytoplasm at the time of rhizoid formation were isolated. Although sulfated polysaccharides in brown algae are reported to be very heterogeneous in terms of their sugar composition and complexes with other heteropolymers, we propose that there are two major components that are sulfated during early embryogenesis in Fucus. The location of these two sulfated polysaccharides in different chemical fractions may reflect their subcellular localization (e.g., cytoplasmic vesicles or cell walls), or their association with other heteropolymers.