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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1989 Aug;86(16):6131–6132. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.16.6131

Arsonium compounds in algae

A A Benson 1
PMCID: PMC297789  PMID: 16594059

Abstract

Search for a precursor of the arsenobetaine discovered in Western Australian rock lobster tail muscle has led to an algal metabolite of radioarsenate having the properties of a trimethylarsoniumriboside derivative of the major arsenicals of aquatic plants, dimethylarsinoylribosylglycerol, its sulfate ester, and the corresponding riboside of phosphatidylglycerol. Such an arsonium compound could serve as metabolic precursor of arsenobetaine, the innocuous arsenical component of many marine food products. The oceanic diatom, Chaetoceros gracilis, cultured in radioarsenate produced a compound whose chemical, chromatographic, and electrophoretic properties are described. It was found to be identical to the trimethylarsonium derivative synthesized from the major algal arsenical, 1-(5′-dimethylarsinoyl-5′-deoxyribosyl)glycerol-3-O -sulfate.

Keywords: arsenobetaine precursor, arsenate metabolism, arsenic detoxication, trimethylarsoniumlactate, trimethylarsoniumribosides

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Cooney R. V., Mumma R. O., Benson A. A. Arsoniumphospholipid in algae. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1978 Sep;75(9):4262–4264. doi: 10.1073/pnas.75.9.4262. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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