Abstract
The water-soluble polysaccharides isolated from the laboratory cultures of lichen mycobionts and phycobionts were studied comparatively. The polysaccharides of mycobionts so far tested showed close similarities with those of parent lichens, whereas the polysaccharides of phycobionts gave different features. Therefore, it is highly probable that the water-soluble polysaccharides of lichens are mostly produced by their mycobionts as like as the lichen metabolites of smaller molecular size.
