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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, December 1999, p. 5265-5271, Vol. 65, No. 12
Dong-A University, Hadan 2-dong, Sha-gu,
Pusan, 604-714, Korea1; Biotechnology
Division, U. S. Army Natick Research, Development and Engineering
Center, Natick, Massachusetts 017602;
Department of Chemistry, University of
Massachusetts-Lowell, Lowell, Massachusetts
018543; Polymer Research Institute,
Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, New York
112014; and Biotechnology Center,
Department of Chemical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford,
Massachusetts 021555
Received 4 January 1999/Accepted 12 September 1999
Aureobasidium pullulans ATCC 42023 was cultured under
aerobic conditions with glucose, mannose, and glucose analogs as energy sources. The exopolymer extracts produced under these conditions were
composed of glucose and mannose. The molar ratio of glucose to mannose
in the exopolymer extract and the molecular weight of the exopolymer
varied depending on the energy source and culture time. The glucose
content of exopolymer extracts formed with glucose and mannose as the
carbon sources was between 91 and 87%. The molecular weight decreased
from 3.5 × 106 to 2.12 × 106 to
0.85 × 106 to 0.77 × 106 with
culture time. As the culture time increased, the glucose content of the
exopolymer extract formed with glucosamine decreased from 55 ± 3 to 29 ± 2 mol%, and the molecular weight increased from
2.73 × 106 to 4.86 × 106. There was
no evidence that glucosamine was directly incorporated into
exopolymers. The molar ratios of glucose to mannose in exopolymer extracts ranged from 87 ± 3:13 ± 3 to 28 ± 2:72 ± 2 and were affected by the energy source added. On the basis of the
results of an enzyme hydrolysis analysis of the exopolymer extracts and
the compositional changes observed, mannose (a repeating unit) was substituted for glucose, which gave rise to a new family of exopolymer analogs.
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Biosynthesis of Novel Exopolymers by
Aureobasidium pullulans
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address for Richard A. Gross: Polymer Research Institute, Polytechnic University, Brooklyn, NY
11201. Phone: (718) 260-3024. Fax: (718) 875-9646. E-mail: rgross{at}pdy.edu. Mailing address for David L. Kaplan: Biotechnology Center, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford,
MA 02155. Phone: (617) 627-3251. Fax: (617) 627-3991. E-mail:
dkaplan1{at}tufts.edu.
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