Structure of the oligosaccharide chain of lipoglycan from Acholeplasma granularum.

The membrane associated lipoglycan from Acholeplasma granularum is a linear oligosaccharide attached to a diacylglycerol. The polymer has a monomeric weight of 20000 and is composed of glucose, galactose, N-acetylglucosamine, N-acetylfucosamine, glycerol and fatty acid esters. The proposed structure of the oligosaccharide chain is 12 repeating units of 9 sugars: Glcp(beta 1 leads to 2)-Glcp(alpha 1 leads to 4)-Glcp(alpha 1 leads to 3,4)-FcNAc(beta 1 leads to 3)-Galp(alpha 1 leads to 3)-Galp(alpha 1 leads to 3)-Galp(alpha 1 leads to 3,4)-GlcNAc(beta 1 leads to 3,4)-GlcNAc(beta 1 leads to 4)-[Glcp(beta 1 leads to 2)-Glcp(alpha 1 leads to 4)-Glcp(alpha 1 leads to 3,4)-FcNAc(beta 1 leads to 3)-Galp(alpha 1 leads to 3)-Galp(alpha 1 leads to 3)-Galp(alpha 1 leads to 3,4)-GlcNAc(beta 1 leads to 3,4)-GlcNAc(beta 1 leads to 4)]10-Glcp(beta 1 leads to 2)-Glcp(alpha 1 leads to 4)-Glcp(alpha 1 leads to 3,4)-FcNAc(beta 1 leads to 3)-Galp(alpha 1 leads to 3)-Galp(alpha 1 leads to 3)-Galp(alpha 1 leads to 3,4)-GlcNAc(beta 1 leads to 3,4)-GlcNAc-diacylglycerol. The position of the linkages (3 or 4) on the amino sugars has not been resolved.