Phytosphingosine biosynthesis differs from sphingosine in fish leukocytes and involves a transfer of methyl groups from [3H-methyl]methionine precursor.

We have studied the incorporation of radioactivity from either [3-3H]serine as the direct or [3H-methyl]methionine as the indirect precursor into sphingoid bases of free ceramides in lymphocytes from fish. Radioactivity from serine was incorporated mostly in the sphingosine moiety of ceramides. In contrast, the radioactivity from methionine was exclusively incorporated into phytosphingosine base (i.e., 4-hydroxy-sphinganine) and the incorporation increased by about twofold in the presence of folic acid or niacinamide. Identity of the long-chain bases, phytosphingosine and sphingosine, was established chemically by thin-layer chromatography, chemical degradation, and gas-liquid chromatography.