Journal of Lipid Research, Vol. 12, 318-323, May 1971
Copyright © 1971 by Lipid Research, Inc.

Structure of sulfatides biosynthesized in vitro

Pierre Stoffyn , Anne Stoffyn , and George Hauser

Research Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts 02178; and Department of Biological Chemistry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115

Starting from galactose-¹⁴C-labeled phrenosine and 3'-phosphoadenosine-5'-phosphosulfate, radioactive sulfatides have been obtained in vitro with a biosynthetic system similar to the one described by McKhann and Ho (Ref. 6). It has thus been proved that exogenous cerebrosides can act as acceptors of sulfate. The specific radioactivity of the synthetic phrenosine used as precursor was sufficiently high to permit the proof of the structure of the resulting sulfatides to be done by methylation on an amount estimated at 0.1 µg. The sulfate group was found only at C-3 of galactose, the position at which it is located in sulfatides isolated from tissues. This observation indicates the specificity of the sulfotransferase involved in the in vivo synthesis of sulfatides.

Supplementary key words sulfotransferase • micromethylation • phrenosine-¹⁴C synthesis

Submitted on October 29, 1970
Accepted on January 14, 1970

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