Galactolipids are a type of

glycolipid Glycolipids are lipids with a carbohydrate attached by a glycosidic (covalent) bond. Their role is to maintain the stability of the cell membrane and to facilitate cellular recognition, which is crucial to the immune response and in the conne ...

whose sugar group is

galactose Galactose (, '' galacto-'' + ''-ose'', "milk sugar"), sometimes abbreviated Gal, is a monosaccharide sugar that is about as sweet as glucose, and about 65% as sweet as sucrose. It is an aldohexose and a C-4 epimer of glucose. A galactose molecu ...

. They differ from

glycosphingolipid Glycosphingolipids are a subtype of glycolipids containing the amino alcohol sphingosine. They may be considered as sphingolipids with an attached carbohydrate. Glycosphingolipids are a group of lipids (more specifically, sphingolipids) and are a ...

s in that they do not have

nitrogen Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...

in their composition. They are the main part of plant

membrane lipid Membrane lipids are a group of compounds (structurally similar to fats and oils) which form the double-layered surface of all cells (lipid bilayer). The three major classes of membrane lipids are phospholipids, glycolipids, and cholesterol. Lipid ...

s where they substitute phospholipids to conserve phosphate for other essential processes. These

chloroplast membrane Chloroplasts contain several important membranes, vital for their function. Like mitochondria, chloroplasts have a double-membrane envelope, called the chloroplast envelope, but unlike mitochondria, chloroplasts also have internal membrane struc ...

s contain a high quantity of monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG) and digalactosyldiacylglycerol (DGDG). They probably also assume a direct role in

photosynthesis Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored in ...

, as they have been found in the X-ray structures of photosynthetic complexes. Galactolipids are more bioavailable than free fatty acids, and have been shown to exhibit COX mediated anti-inflammatory activity. Bio-guided fractionation of spinach leaves (''Spinacia oleracea'') revealed

alpha-linolenic acid ''alpha''-Linolenic acid (ALA), also known as α-Linolenic acid (from Greek ''alpha'' meaning "first" and ''linon'' meaning flax), is an ''n''−3, or omega-3, essential fatty acid. ALA is found in many seeds and oils, including flaxseed, wa ...

galactolipids (18:3, n-3) were responsible for inhibitory effects on tumor promoter-induced Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) activation. Recently, it has been demonstrated that this same galactolipid, 1,2-di-O-α-linolenoyl-3-O-α-D-galactopyranosyl-''sn''-glycerol, may be important for the anti-inflammatory activity of

Dog Rose ''Rosa canina'', commonly known as the dog rose, is a variable climbing, wild rose species native to Europe, northwest Africa, and western Asia. Description The dog rose is a deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''de ...

(''Rosa canina''), a medicinal plant with documented effect on inflammatory diseases such as arthritis. The galactosphingolipid galactocerebroside (GalC) and its sulfated derivative sulfatide is also in abundance present (together with a small group of proteins) in

myelin Myelin is a lipid-rich material that surrounds nerve cell axons (the nervous system's "wires") to insulate them and increase the rate at which electrical impulses (called action potentials) are passed along the axon. The myelinated axon can ...

, the membrane around the

axon An axon (from Greek ἄξων ''áxōn'', axis), or nerve fiber (or nerve fibre: see spelling differences), is a long, slender projection of a nerve cell, or neuron, in vertebrates, that typically conducts electrical impulses known as action p ...

s in the

nervous system In biology, the nervous system is the highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its actions and sensory information by transmitting signals to and from different parts of its body. The nervous system detects environmental changes ...

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, with ...

s. It is galactolipids, rather than phlorotannins, that act as

herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpar ...

deterrents in ''

Fucus vesiculosus ''Fucus vesiculosus'', known by the common names bladder wrack, black tang, rockweed, sea grapes, bladder fucus, sea oak, cut weed, dyers fucus, red fucus and rock wrack, is a seaweed found on the coasts of the North Sea, the western Baltic Se ...

'' against the sea urchin '' Arbacia punctulata''.Galactolipids rather than phlorotannins as herbivore deterrents in the brown seaweed Fucus vesiculosus. Michael S. Deal, Mark E. Hay, Dean Wilson and William Fenical, Oecologia, June 2003, Volume 136, Issue 1, pages 107-114,

References

{{reflist Glycolipids Carbohydrate chemistry