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. 2016 Dec 20;11(12):e0168794. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0168794

Fig 1. Structure of gangliosides and general scheme of biosynthesis (after Masson et al. [1]).

Fig 1

A. GGs are made of a ceramide moiety composed of a long chain base (LCB) and a fatty acid (FA) whose alkyl chains may vary, and on which an oligosaccharide chain is branched. GD3 34:1 (based on LIPID MAPS, systematic name: NeuAcα2-8NeuAcα2-3Galβ1-4Glcβ-Cer) is given as an example. The ceramide is composed of sphingosine (d18:1) as LCB and stearic acid (18:0) as FA. The oligosaccharide chain is made of one glucose, one galactose and two sialic acid residues. B. The formation of GGs is catalyzed by the sequential action of glycosyltransferases (italic). The main GG classes of the ganglio-series are represented with their common names, according to Svennerholm [2].