Abstract
The hyphal walls of three mycobionts, isolated from the lichens Xanthoria parietina, Tornabenia intricata and Sarcogyne sp. were investigated by two techniques: microautoradiography of fungal colonies exposed to radioactive carbohydrate precursors; and binding, in vivo, of fluorescein conjugated lectins to hyphal walls of such colonies.
N-[3H] acetylglucosamine was readily incorporated into tips, young hyphal walls and septa of the three mycobionts and the free-living fungus Trichoderma viride, but not into Phytophthora citrophthora, indicating that chitin is a major component of the mycobionts' hyphal walls. All three mycobionts, but neither of the free-living fungi, incorporated [3H] mannose and [3H] mannitol into their hyphal walls.
Fluorescein-conjugated wheat germ agglutinin was bound to the hyphal walls of the three mycobionts and T. viride, but not to the walls of P. citrophthora; the binding pattern was similar to the grain pattern obtained in autoradiographs after short N-[3H] acetylglucosamine labelling. As wheat germ agglutinin binds specifically to chitin oligomers, the lectin binding tests further confirmed that chitin is a mycobiont hyphal wall component.
Binding characteristics of several fluorescein-conjugated lectins to the three mycobionts indicated that this technique can yield useful information concerning the chemical composition of hyphal wall surfaces.
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Abbreviations
- FITC:
-
fluorescein isothiocyanate
- WGA:
-
wheat germ agglutinin
- TCA:
-
trichloroacetic acid
- PNA:
-
peanut agglutinin
- LA:
-
lotus agglutinin
- Glc NAc:
-
N-acetylglucosamine
- ConA:
-
concanavalin A
- SBA:
-
soybean agglutinin
- WBA:
-
waxbean agglutinin
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Part of an M.Sc. thesis submitted by A. Braun to the Department of Botany, Tel Aviv University.
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Galun, M., Braun, A., Frensdorff, A. et al. Hyphal walls of isolated lichen fungi. Arch. Microbiol. 108, 9–16 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00425087
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00425087