Isolation and characterization of inositol-containing glycosphingolipids from Aspergillus niger.

The glycophosphosphingolipids are a group of sphingolipids characterized by the presence of equimolar amounts of long-chain base and fatty acid (ceramide) and containing either one or two mol of inositol phosphate per mol of lipid. From one to several mol of sugar are also present. Glycophosphosphingolipids have been isolated from both plant and fungal sources. Work in this area had for years been the province of Herbert Carter and colleagues. They showed that such glycolipids occurred in seeds from corn, flax, soya beans and bean leaves (Carter et al., 1958; Carter & Koob, 1969). The major glycolipid from corn seed had the structure (Carter et al., 1969):