Positional distribution of fatty acids on the glycerol backbone during the biosynthesis of glycerolipids in Ectocarpus fasciculatus

The biosynthesis of glycolipids in E. fasciculatus was studied by ¹⁴C label and chase. The fatty acids in sulphoquinovosyl diacylglycerol (SQDG) were almost 16-car- bon and 18-carbon ones. In addition to the two fatty acids, monogalactosyl diacylglycerol (MGDG) and digalactosyl diacylglycerol (DGDG) contained 8.5 mol% and 31.0 mol% of eicosapentaenoic acid (20∶5), respectively, and this fatty acid was usually distributed in the sn-1 position of the glycerol backbone. When plants were incubated with [2-¹⁴C] acetate, differences existed in the positional distribution of the labeled fatty acids in sn-1 and sn-2 among the three glycerolipids. In SQDG, ¹⁴C-labeled fatty acids were distributed uniformly in the sn-1 and sn-2 positions. In DGDG, ¹⁴C-labeled fatty acids were mainly distributed in the sn-2 position. In MGDG, the radioactivity of fatty acids in sn-1 position was far greater than that in sn-2 position after a 30 min pulse label, and the difference in radioactivity between the two positions decreased rapidly. The above results indicated that differences in the positional distribution of ¹⁴C-labeled fatty acids between sn-1 and sn-2 positions might be related to 20∶5 and the biosynthesis of DGDG. Our results also suggested that E. fasciculatus had the same DGDG biosynthetic pathway as that in higher plants and galactosyl transferase was selective for MGDG.