Diversidade e possíveis aplicações quimiotaxonômicas dos polissacarídeos extracelulares de microalgas verdes cocoides

Abstract

The extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) produced by microalgae have mainly been studied because of their relevance to aquatic environments (Myklestad 1995). As the monomer composition of the EPS is presented as heteropolymers often composed of a diversity of monomers and that the diversity of EPS between algae is huge and taxonomically close organisms each other have compounds slightly different, made us believe in their use for chemotaxonomy of microalgae. The use of EPS for this purpose, was due to the ease of extracting them from cultures, their facility to be analyzed, together with their specificity and their constitution by only one or two fractions. This study goal was to verify the possibility of using EPS as features for a possible chemotaxonomic approach. Thus the characterization of algae polysaccharides was essential for a better understanding of the differences and similarities found in the EPS. Thus, throughout the chapters we will look at the characterization of specific groups which had most representatives for the selected genres. These genera were: 1) Ankistrodesmus; 2) complex Selenastrum / Messastrum / Curvastrum; 3) Monoraphidium; and 4) Kirchneriella. The observation of monomers / specific bond within the genera, due to the characterization of EPS, showed us that there are possible differentiation between strains / species and at the genus level.