Structure of heparan sulfate from the fresh water mollusc Anomantidae sp: sequencing of its disaccharide units.

1. The disaccharide sequences of a heparan sulfate isolated from Anomantidae sp. was determined with the aid of heparitinase I, heparitinase II from Flavobacterium heparinum, mollusc beta-glucuronidase and alpha-N-acetylglucosaminidase besides nitrous acid degradation and chemical analyses. 2. Like the mammalian heparan sulfates the mollusc heparan sulfate is composed of different oligosaccharide blocks of N-acetylated disaccharides, N-sulfated disaccharides and N,6-sulfated disaccharides and has in its nonreducing end the monosaccharide glucosamine 2,6-disulfate. 3. The oligosaccharides produced by heparitinase I degradation contain at their reducing ends a N-acetylated, 6-sulfated disaccharide. 4. These and other results lead to the conclusion that the general structure of the heparan sulfate is maintained through evolution.