Microciona

The ability of dissociated cells of sponges to aggregate with cells only of a like type (p. 29) depends upon large extracellular proteoglycans. That of Microciona prolifera appears to be an aggregate of about three hundred 35-kDa core protein molecules with equal masses of attached carbohydrate. This aggregation factor has a total mass of 2 x 104 kDa.226 227 It apparently interacts specifically, in the presence of Ca2+ ions, with a 210-kDa cell matrix protein to hold cells of the same species together.227... 

Cimino, G., De Stefano, S., Guerriero, A., and Minale, L., Furanosesquiterpenoids in sponges IV. Microcionins from Microciona toxystila, Tetrahedron Lett., 3723, 1975. 

Spillmann D, Hard K, Thomas-Oates J, Vhegenthart JEG, Misevic G, Burger MM, Finne J. Characterization of a novel pyruvylated carbohydrate unit implicated in the cell aggregation of the marine sponge Microciona prolifera. J. Biol. Chem. 1993 268 13378-13387. 

Special attention has to be paid towards the pyruvated building blocks if the pyruvated glycosyl residue is linked to a position which is expected to be highly unreactive in glycosylations. For example, the proteoglycan of the marine sponge Microciona prolifera (Table 1) exhibits a 4,6-pyruvated lactosamine moiety. Since position 4 of glucosamine acceptors is such an unreactive position. 

Nigrelli, R.F., Jakowska, S. and Calventi, I., 1959. Ectyonin, an antimicrobial agent from the sponge, Microciona prolifera (Verill.). Zoologica, 44 173—176. 

A. Carvalho de Souza, J. F. G. Vliegenthart, and J. P. Kamerling, Gold nanopartieles eoated with a pymvated trisaeeharide epitope of the extraeellular proteogly-ean of Microciona prolifera as potential tools to explore earbohydrate-mediated eell reeognition, Org. Biomol. Chem., 6 (2008) 2095-2102. 

G. N. Misevic, J. Finne, and M. M. Burger, Involvement of carbohydrates as multiple low affinity interaction sites in the self-association of the aggregation factor from the marine sponge Microciona prolifera, J. Biol. Chem., 262 (1987) 5870-5877. 

Occurs in Microciona prolifora, seeds of Asphodelus tennifolus and Baltic salmon. Mp 67.3-67.8°. Bpoj 180°. 

SPECTRAL data UV, PMR, Mass Spec organism Microciona toxystila (Porifera) reference 84... 

Several carotenoids have been isolated from marine sponges 142), for example the main carotenoids of Microciona prolifera 143) and a carotenoid sulfate, bastaxanthin (222a), from lanthella basta 144). Bastaxanthin (222a) was the first known naturally occurring carotenoid sulfate. 

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