Phycocolloid chemistry as a taxonomic indicator of phylogeny in the Gigartinales, Rhodophyceae: A review and current developments using Fourier transform infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy

Abstract

The taxonomic significance of the polysaccharide structures of algal cell walls has been underscored several times over the past few decades but has never been pursued systematically. Many changes in red algal systematics and the biochemical analyses of phycocolloids have occured in recent years. The cell‐wall composi‐tion of representatives of 167 (24.7%) genera and 470 (11.5%) species of red algae has been documented.The method developed by Chopin and Whalen for carrageenan identification by Fourier transform infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy is extended to the study of phycocolloids for diverse species in many red algal orders. This paper focuses on the Gigartinales in which representatives of 28 (68.3%) families, 88 (50.6%) genera and 224 (27.9%) species have been analyzed. In light of recent molecular phylogenies, some patterns of distribution of key phycocolloid attributes, corresponding to familial and ordinal level groupings, are emerging; however, more species remain to be analyzed. The well‐documented biochemical alternation of generations in the Phyllophoraceae, Petrocelidaceae and Gigartinaceae still holds (with two exceptions), but this pattern was not recorded in other families of Gigartinales.

Analysis by Vibrational Spectroscopy of Seaweed Polysaccharides with Potential Use in Food, Pharmaceutical, and Cosmetic Industries

“…The assignments of the IR spectra were mostly based on previous works [4,5,9,16,23]. The Raman spectra were assigned based on the IR information and on the comparison between samples of known composition.…”

“…The characteristic broad band of sulphate esters in general [9] between 1210 to 1260 cm −1 ( Figures 2, 3, and 4) was much stronger in carrageenan than in agar (Figures 5 and 6). Especially in the anomeric region (700-950 cm 6(a)-6(c)) assigned to the presence of 3,6-anhydrogalactose was common to agar and carrageenans; the band at 890 cm…”

“…The structure of the various types of carrageenans is defined by the number and position of sulphate groups, the presence of 3,6-anhydro-D-galactose, and conformation of the pyranose ring. There are about fifteen idealized carrageenan structures traditionally identified by Greek letters [9].…”

Mechanical and biological consequences of repetitive loading: crack initiation and fatigue failure in the red macroalga Mazzaella

“…Its material properties are determined in large part by its cell wall composition, which includes fiber-forming polysaccharides such as cellulose and matrix polysaccharides such as sulfated galactans (e.g. Kloareg and Quatrano, 1988;Craigie, 1990;Chopin et al, 1999). Mazzaella was selected for experimentation because it had previously proven amenable to repeated-loading testing (Mach et al, 2007b), and its flat-bladed morphology facilitated test-specimen preparation as well as photographic documentation of crack formation during fatigue testing.…”

Hydrophobic plastics films synthesis by mean of agaroid acylation with lauroyl chloride in the N,N-dimethylacetamide homogeneous system

“…2). FT-IR spectra were examined in the frequency range of 400-4000 cm -1 (Chopin et al, 1999). Native agar shows a main band maximum at 3544 cm -1 which is attributed to hydroxyl groups.…”