THE PREPARATION AND PROPERTIES OF A POLYSACCHARIDE SYNTHESIZED BY ACHROMOBACTER FISCHERI

Receive: RSS Feeds, eTOCs, free email alerts (when new articles cite this article), more» Information about commercial reprint orders: http://jb.asm.org/site/misc/reprints.xhtml To subscribe to to another ASM Journal go to: http://journals.asm.org/site/subscriptions/ Wyeth Institute of Applied Biochemistry, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Received for publication July 20, 1951 The production of mucopolysaccharides by strains of groups A and C streptococci which are readily depolymerized by the hyaluronidases has prompted speculation as to whether this polysaccharide is limited to the capsular structure of streptococci. The possibility was considered that polysaccharide substrates for hyaluronidase may be formed by various bacteria as endocellular, exoceliular, and capsular metabolic products. It has been shown that polysaccharides isolated from Bacillu8 megaterium Leuconostoc dextranicum, Rhizobium radicicolum, and Azotobacter chroococcum (Madinaveitia and Stacey, 1944), failed to serve as substrates for hyaluronidase. More recently Warren (1950) found that a polysaccharide isolated from culture ffitrates of a mucoid, capsulated strain of Aerobacter aerogenes was depolymerized by bovine testicular hyaluronidase. During a study of the ability of the testicular hyaluronidases to depolymerize bacterial polysaccharides, it was found that when a suspension of the marine lulminous bacterium Achromobacter fischeri was subjected to a temperature of 65 C to 70 C for 30 minutes, a marked increase in the viscosity of the suspension resulted. The addition of dilute, acidified horse serum (pH 4.2) to a small amount of the viscous material produced a voluminous, stringy clot. When the viscous material was incubated with either bovine testicular or streptococcal hyaluronidase, the formation of the clot was prevented. Further study...