Synthesis of High‐Mannose Oligosaccharide Analogues through Click Chemistry: True Functional Mimics of Their Natural Counterparts Against Lectins?

Terminal “high‐mannose oligosaccharides” are involved in a broad range of biological and pathological processes, from sperm‐egg fusion to influenza and human immunodeficiency virus infections. In spite of many efforts, their synthesis continues to be very challenging and actually represents a major bottleneck in the field. Whereas multivalent presentation of mannopyranosyl motifs onto a variety of scaffolds has proven to be a successful way to interfere in recognition processes involving high‐mannose oligosaccharides, such constructs fail at reproducing the subtle differences in affinity towards the variety of protein receptors (lectins) and antibodies susceptible to binding to the natural ligands. Here we report a family of functional high‐mannose oligosaccharide mimics that reproduce not only the terminal mannopyranosyl display, but also the core structure and the branching pattern, by replacing some inner mannopyranosyl units with triazole rings. Such molecular design can be implemented by exploiting “click” ligation strategies, resulting in a substantial reduction of synthetic cost. The binding affinities of the new “click” high‐mannose oligosaccharide mimics towards two mannose specific lectins, namely the plant lectin concanavalin A (ConA) and the human macrophage mannose receptor (rhMMR), have been studied by enzyme‐linked lectin assays and found to follow identical trends to those observed for the natural oligosaccharide counterparts. Calorimetric determinations against ConA, and X‐ray structural data support the conclusion that these compounds are not just another family of multivalent mannosides, but real “structural mimics” of the high‐mannose oligosaccharides.     

Intragonadal somatic cells (ISCs) in the male oyster Crassostrea gigas: morphology and contribution in germinal epithelium structure

The ultrastructure of somatic cells present in gonadal tubules in male oyster Crassostrea gigas was investigated. These cells, named Intragonadal Somatic Cells (ISCs) have a great role in the organization of the germinal epithelium in the gonad. Immunological detection of α-tubulin tyrosine illustrates their association in columns from the basis to the lumen of the tubule, stabilized by numerous adhesive junctions. This somatic intragonadal organization delimited some different groups of germ cells along the tubule walls. In early stages of gonad development, numerous phagolysosomes were observed in the cytoplasm of ISCs indicating that these cells have in this species an essential role in the removal of waste sperm in the tubules. Variations of lipids droplets content in the cytoplasm of ISCs were also noticed along the spermatogenesis course. ISCs also present some mitochondria with tubullo-lamellar cristae.     

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA SYNTHESIS IN NON-GROWTH CONDITION (LIQUID HOLDING) IN Saccharomyces cerevisiae. RELATION WITH GROWTH STAGES and MITOCHONDRIAL DNA REPAIR AFTER UV-IRRADIATION

Abstract— The synthesis of DNA as measured by incorporation of [¹⁴C]adenine in Saccharomyces cerevisiae liquid held in non-growth conditions was followed in controls and UV-irradiated cells. The incorporation into mitochondrial DNA relative to total DNA was higher in these conditions than that observed in growth medium, especially in liquid held stationary phase cells. The absolute amount of mitochondrial DNA synthesized during liquid holding was larger in exponential than in stationary phase cells and increased after UV-irradiation.
The data reported here are discussed in relation to the effects of liquid holding on the UV-induction of rho ⁻ mutants, such effects depending upon the growth stage of the cells at the time of irradiation. A correlation has been found between the initial ability of the cells to synthesize mitochondrial DNA in liquid holding conditions and their capacity to repair UV-induced lesions in this DNA. We propose the hypothesis that the opposite effects of liquid holding on the UV-induction of rho ⁻ mutants observed in exponential versus stationary phase cells are not due to the action of different repair pathways, but result essentially from quantitative differences in mtDNA synthesis.