Isolation and identification of chitin in three-dimensional skeleton of Aplysina fistularis marine sponge

Marcin Wysokowski, Vasilii V. Bazhenov, Mikhail V. Tsurkan, Roberta Galli, Allison L. Stelling, Hartmut Stöcker, Sabine Kaiser, Elke Niederschlag, Günter Gärtner, Thomas Behm, Micha Ilan, Alexander Y. Petrenko, Teofil Jesionowski, Hermann Ehrlich*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

84 Scopus citations

Abstract

The recent discovery of chitin within skeletons of numerous marine and freshwater sponges (Porifera) stimulates further experiments to identify this structural aminopolysaccharide in new species of these aquatical animals. Aplysina fistularis (Verongida: Demospongiae: Porifera) is well known to produce biologically active bromotyrosines. Here, we present a detailed study of the structural and physico-chemical properties of the three-dimensional skeletal scaffolds of this sponge. Calcofluor white staining, Raman and IR spectroscopy, ESI-MS as well as chitinase digestion test were applied in order to unequivocally prove the first discovery of α-chitin in skeleton of A. fistularis.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)94-100
Number of pages7
JournalInternational Journal of Biological Macromolecules
Volume62
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2013

Funding

FundersFunder number
BHMZ
Mobilność Plus Program920/MOB/2012/0
Deutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftEH 394/3-1
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung03EK3029A
Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego

    Keywords

    • Chitin
    • Marine sponges
    • Scaffold

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