A novel ganglioside in dogfish brain. Occurrence of a trisialoganglioside with a sialic acid linked to N-acetylgalactosamine.

A novel trisialoganglioside has been isolated from dogfish (Squalus acanthias) brain. From the results of gas chromatography-mass spectrometric analysis of methylated sugars, enzymatic hydrolysis, fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry, and proton nuclear magnetic resonance analysis, its structure was concluded to be (formula; see text) This is the first report of the occurrence of a ganglioside with 3 sialic acid residues separately linked to its gangliotetraosyl backbone.