| Literature DB >> 23831449 |
Hermann Ehrlich1, Oksana V Kaluzhnaya2, Eike Brunner3, Mikhail V Tsurkan4, Alexander Ereskovsky5, Micha Ilan6, Konstantin R Tabachnick7, Vasilii V Bazhenov8, Silvia Paasch3, Martin Kammer3, René Born9, Allison Stelling10, Roberta Galli10, Sergei Belikov11, Olga V Petrova12, Victor V Sivkov12, Denis Vyalikh13, Sebastian Hunoldt3, Gert Wörheide14.
Abstract
This work demonstrates that chitin is an important structural component within the skeletal fibers of the freshwater sponge Spongilla lacustris. Using a variety of analytical techniques ((13)C solid state NMR, FT-IR, Raman, NEXAFS, ESI-MS, Morgan-Elson assay and Calcofluor White Staining); we show that this sponge chitin is much closer to α-chitin, known to be present in other animals, than to β-chitin. Genetic analysis confirmed the presence of chitin synthases, which are described for the first time in a sponge. The presence of chitin in both marine (demosponges and hexactinellids) and freshwater sponges indicates that this important structural biopolymer was already present in their common ancestor.Entities:
Keywords: Bioanalytics; Chitin; Chitin synthase; Skeleton; Sponges
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Year: 2013 PMID： 23831449 DOI： 10.1016/j.jsb.2013.06.015
Source DB: PubMed Journal: J Struct Biol ISSN： 1047-8477 Impact factor: 2.867