Pathways for Biosynthesis of a Bacterial Capsular Polysaccharide Iv

Juni, Elliot (Emory University, Atlanta, Ga.), and Gloria A. Heym. Pathways for biosynthesis of a bacterial capsular polysaccharide. IV. Capsule resynthesis by decapsulated resting-cell suspensions. J. Bacteriol. 87:461-467. 1964.-Methods were devised for stripping capsules from encapsulated bacteria. By use of stripped resting-cell suspensions of a gram-negative capsule-forming coccus, it was shown that polysaccharide capsule resynthesis depends upon the presence of air and an oxidizable substrate. Capsule resynthesis proceeds linearly with time. For a given quantity of stripped cells, the net amount of polysaccharide capsule synthesized is a linear function of the amount of substrate oxidized. The only factor that appears to limit the extent of capsule synthesis by resting cells is the amount of substrate utilized. A series of photomicrographs of wet mounts made in India ink show the appearance of stripped cells and resynthesized capsules formed during oxidation of pyruvate and glucose by stripped resting-cell suspensions.