Demystifying and Unravelling the Factual Molecular Structure of the Biopolymer Sporopollenin

27 November 2019, Version 2
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

Sporopollenin is a natural, highly cross-linked biopolymer composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, which forms the outer wall of pollen grains. Sporopollenin is resilient to chemical degradation. Because of this stability, its exact chemical structure and the biochemical pathways involved in its biosynthesis remains a mystery and unresolved.

We have identified and characterized the molecular structure of the clean, intact sporopollenin using soft ionization mass spectrometric and nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. These analyses showed that sporopollenin contained a poly(hydroxyacid) dendrimer-like network, which accounted for the sporopollenin empirical formula. In addition, the identified hydroxy acid monomers contained a beta diketone moiety, which most probably accounts for the known antioxidant activity of sporopollenin. Moreover, our elucidation studies allowed us to identify a unique circular polyhydroxylated tetraketide polymer. This polymer acted as the rigid backbone on which the poly(hydroxyacid) network can be built, forming the scaffold of the spherical sporopollenin exine.


Keywords

Lyocpodium clavatum sporopollenin
TOF-SIMS-MS
High Energy CID-FIB-MS/MS
MALDI-TOF-MS
High Energy MALDI-CID-MS/MS
1D and 2D solid state 1H and 13C-NMR

Supplementary materials

Title
Description
Actions
Title
18th NOV supporting information
Description
Actions

Comments

Comments are not moderated before they are posted, but they can be removed by the site moderators if they are found to be in contravention of our Commenting Policy [opens in a new tab] - please read this policy before you post. Comments should be used for scholarly discussion of the content in question. You can find more information about how to use the commenting feature here [opens in a new tab] .
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy [opens in a new tab] and Terms of Service [opens in a new tab] apply.