Onuphic Acid—A Sugar Phosphate Polymer from the Tube of Hyalinoecia tubicola

Abstract

ALTHOUGH sugar phosphate polymers are present in bacterial cell walls¹ and phosphorylated polysaccharides are produced by certain yeasts², reports of macromolecules composed of carbohydrate and phosphate in higher animals have been confined to the ribose phosphate backbone of the nucleic acids. During an investigation of the nature of skeletal structures in the invertebrates, however, it has been observed³ that in the tubes of the marine worm Hyalinoecia tubicola the phosphate is not present as inorganic salt but is closely associated with carbohydrates.