In order to survive in a highly competitive environment, freshwater or marine phototrophic microorganisms have to develop defense strategies that result in a tremendous diversity of compounds from different metabolic pathways. Recent trends in drug research from natural sources have shown that algae and cyanobacteria are promising organisms to furnish novel biochemically active compounds. In this study, we have analysed the extracellular mucilaginous proteoglycan produced by fresh-water heterocytous filamentous cyanobacterium Wollea saccata, strain Hindák 2000/18. This mucilaginous material is an acidic proteoglycan containing 30% protein and 52% carbohydrates on the basis of fraction dry weight. The constituent sugars of the carbohydrate component include glucose, fucose, 3-O-methylfucose, xylose, galactose, 3-O-methylgalactose, mannose, rhamnose, arabinose and glucuronic acid. The extracellular proteoglycan has been separated into five fractions (WF1-WF5) by anion exchange chromatography. Individual polymeric fractions varied in protein (16-57%) and carbohydrate (31-66%) contents, and in the composition of constituent monosaccharides.

Natural Products Laboratory Department of Chemistry The University of Burdwan WB 713 104 India

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