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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, December 1999, p. 5265-5271, Vol. 65, No. 12
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Biosynthesis of Novel Exopolymers by Aureobasidium pullulans

Jin W. Lee,1 Walter G. Yeomans,2 Alfred L. Allen,2 Fang Deng,3 Richard A. Gross,4,* and David L. Kaplan5,*

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.


* 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.


Applied and Environmental Microbiology, December 1999, p. 5265-5271, Vol. 65, No. 12
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Lee, J. W., Deng, F., Yeomans, W. G., Allen, A. L., Gross, R. A., Kaplan, D. L. (2001). Direct Incorporation of Glucosamine and N-Acetylglucosamine into Exopolymers by Gluconacetobacter xylinus (=Acetobacter xylinum) ATCC 10245: Production of Chitosan-Cellulose and Chitin-Cellulose Exopolymers. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 67: 3970-3975 [Abstract] [Full Text]