Polysaccharides from Bacteria

The genera of bacteria recognized to produce enzymes capable of synthesizing polysaccharides from sucrose are principally Leuconostoc and Streptococcus. These two genera are gram-positive, facultatively anerobic cocci that are closely related to each other. One notable difference between them is that, until recently (see Section n.l), Leuconostoc species required sucrose in the culture medium to induce the formation of the enzyme(s), whereas the Streptococcus species did not require sucrose in the culture medium for the formation of the enzymes. Thus, the Leuconostoc species were INDUCIBLE for the formation of glucansucrases, and the Streptococcus species were constitutive for their formation. 

Bedini, E., Parrilli, M., Unverzagt, C. Oligomerization of a rhamnanic trisaccharide repeating unit of O-chain polysaccharides from phytopathogenic bacteria. Tetrahedron Lett 43 (2002) 8879-8882. 

In 1923 antibodies specific for a polysaccharide in the pneumococcal cell wall were detected in the serum from rabbits immunized with non-viable pneumococcal cells by Heidelberger and Avery [1], Cell wall polysaccharides from other bacteria as reported by Lancefield [2], McCarty [3], Krause [4], Pazur [5], and Karakawa [6] activated the plasma cells in the serum of animals to initiate the biosynthesis of antibodies which were specific for the carbohydrates. Such antibodies are appropriately classified as anticarbohydrate antibodies. The antibodies which are synthesized on immunization are polyclonal antibodies and consist of various numbers of isoforms. The antibodies which are synthesized by fusion of immune spleen cells and myeloma cells are monoclonal antibodies. 

Glycoproteins will be discussed in some detail in Section 12.4. The carbohydrate components of proteoglycans are known as glycosaminoglycans. Proteoglycans are essential parts of the connective tissue In mammals and are also present to some extent in fish and bacteria (peptidoglycans from the cell wall of bacteria are different biopolymers and were discussed in Section 7.9). The term mucopolysaccharide was used in the past to describe polysaccharide materials of animal origin containing 2-amino-2-deoxyhexoses. 

D-Ribose is known as a component of the lipo- and capsular polysaccharides from many Gram-negative bacteria, where it is found as a (3-furanosyl unit.37 It is found as terminal a-D-Rib/ substituents in some serotypes of the O-antigen of lipopolysaccharides (LPS) from Stenotrophomonas maltophilia,38 Also as a-furanosyl residues, ribose is part of the extracellular polysaccharides of cyanobacteria.39... 

Korakli, M., Ganzle, M.G., and Vogel, R.F. 2002. Metabolism by bifidobacteria and lactic acid bacteria of polysaccharides from wheat and rye, and exopolysaccharides produced by Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis. J. Appl. Microbiol. 92, 958-965. 

The method just described has been utilized in the methylatlon analysis of polysaccharides from fungi, " " bacteria, " algae, rapeseed, oligosaccharides,a glycoside, and glycolipids. ... 

Particular difficulties exist, however, in purifying dextrans synthesized by many streptococci, because the bacteria simultaneously elaborate exocellular fructans (levansDextrans and levans synthesized concomitantly by Leuconostoc micro-organisms have been separated by fractionally precipitating the polysaccharides from aqueous ethanol. These separative procedures are, however, only effective when considerable differences in molecular weight exist between the main fractions of the two polysaccharides, and, as a result, they are of limited value in effecting separation of levans from many streptococcal dextrans. Reports that some oral bacteria are able to metabolize levans suggest that... 

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