Investigation of the heterogeneity of heterogalactan from the fruit bodies of Fomitopsis pinicola, by employing concanavalin A-Sepharose affinity chromatography.

A heterogalactan was isolated from the hot water extract of fruit bodies of Fomitopsis pinicola by a combination of fractionation procedures including precipitation with ethanol and with Cetavlon, and chromatography on columns of DEAE-cellulose and Sephadex G-100. Despite its apparent homogeneity on gel filtration, zone electrophoresis, sedimentation equilibration, and immunodiffusion analyses, the neutral component of heterogalactan was further fractionated into unbound, weakly bound, and strongly bound forms by affinity chromatography on a column of concanavalin A-Sepharose CL 4B. The former two polysaccharides fractions eluted with 0.1 M phosphate buffer (pH 7.0) were found to be a fucogalactan and a mannofucogalactan, respectively. A more tightly bound fraction (mannofucogalactan) was subsequently eluted with 0.1 M glucose in 1 M NaCl. The results of methylation, complete Smith degradation, and proton and 13C NMR spectroscopic analyses indicated that the three kinds of heterogalactans are all highly branched polysaccharides containing a framework of (1 leads to 6)-linked alpha-D-galactopyranosyl residues, the C-2 positions of which are substituted in different proportions with either single L-fucopyranosyl residues or disaccharide units of 3-O-alpha-D-mannopyranosyl-L-fucopyranose residues.