The present study provides new insights into the growth of the brown algal cell wall by showing that cell wall polysaccharides play an important role in the process of growth, considering the physicochemical characteristic of young and old Cladosiphon okamuranus. To determine its structural variation in detail, the cell wall was sequentially fractionated into five fractions: hot water (HW), ammonium oxalate, hemicellulose-I (HC-I), HC-II, and cellulose, and analyzed physicochemically. Results showed that almost 80% of the total recovery cell wall from both young and old thalli was HW, and HC-I contained mainly fucoidan composed of Fucose, Glucuronic acid, and sulfate in molar ratios of 1.0:0.3:0.6~0.7 and 1.0:0.3:0.2~0.3, respectively. Fucoidan in HW was a highly sulfated matrix polysaccharide abundance in young thalli, while fucoidan in HC-I was rich in old thalli and functions as hemicellulose in land plants, crosslinking with cellulose and strengthening the cell wall. We found that HW and HC-I were particularly involved in the growth and strength of old thalli appeared to be due to the deposition of HC-I and the reduction in water content during the growth process.
Keywords: Okinawa Mozuku; cell wall polysaccharide; fucoidan.