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© 1989 Oxford University Press

RESEARCH-ARTICLE

Anti-Auxin Activity of Xyloglucan Oligosaccharides: the Rôle of Groups other than the Terminal {alpha}-L-Fucose Residue

GORDON J. MCDOUGALL and STEPHEN C FRY1

Department of Botany, University of Edinburgh, The King's Buildings Mayfield Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JH, U.K

1 To whom correspondence should be addressed.

The quantitatively major nonasaccharide (XG9) derived from xyloglucan by digestion with cellulase exhibits anti-auxin activity in the pea stem segment straight-growth bioassay; the most effective concentration of XG9 is c. 10–9 M. Previous work had shown that XG9 owes its biological activity to the presence of a terminal {alpha}-L-fucopyranose residue. In order to investigate to what extent the remainder of the XG9 molecule is essential for activity, several fucose-containing compounds were tested for their ability to mimic the anti-auxin effect of XG9. A fucose-containing pentasaccharide of xyloglucan (XG5; probable structure Fuc->Gal->Xyl->Glc->Glc) was, at 10–8 M, about as effective an anti-auxin as 10–9 M XG9; unlike XG9, XG5 did not diminish in effectiveness at 10–7 M. The human milk trisaccharide, 2'-fucosyl-lactose [L-fucopyranosyl-{alpha}-(1->2)-D-galactopyranosyl-ß-(1->4)-D-glucose], whose Fuc->Gal unit is identical with that of XG9, inhibited auxin-induced elongation over a wide range of concentrations centred on about 10–8 M. 2'-Fucosyl-lactose at 10–8 M was about as effective an anti-auxin as 10–9 M XG9. Free L-fucose and methyl-{alpha}-L-fucopyranoside were unable to inhibit auxin-induced growth at any concentration tested (10–10 M to 10–6 M) and neither compound interfered with the inhibition caused by 10–9 M XG9 when co-incubated at concentrations up to 10–4 M. The results confirm the essential rôle of an {alpha}-linked terminal fucose residue in the anti-auxin activity of XG9 and show that the sub-terminal galactose residue may also be required. Possible reasons why high concentrations of XG9 fail to antagonize auxin-induced growth while high concentrations of XG5 and 2'-fucosyl-lactose continue to do so are discussed.

Key words: Anti-auxin, oligosaccharin, fucose


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