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Onuphic Acid—A Sugar Phosphate Polymer from the Tube of Hyalinoecia tubicola

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Abstract

ALTHOUGH sugar phosphate polymers are present in bacterial cell walls1 and phosphorylated polysaccharides are produced by certain yeasts2, reports of macromolecules composed of carbohydrate and phosphate in higher animals have been confined to the ribose phosphate backbone of the nucleic acids. During an investigation of the nature of skeletal structures in the invertebrates, however, it has been observed3 that in the tubes of the marine worm Hyalinoecia tubicola the phosphate is not present as inorganic salt but is closely associated with carbohydrates.

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References

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GRAHAM, G., KELLY, P., PAUTARD, F. et al. Onuphic Acid—A Sugar Phosphate Polymer from the Tube of Hyalinoecia tubicola. Nature 206, 1256–1257 (1965). https://doi.org/10.1038/2061256b0

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