An acidic polysaccharide was isolated from the cell walls of Micrococcus lysodeikticus by lysozyme [EC 3. 2. 1. 17] and L-11 enzyme digestion and successive ECTEOLA-cellulose chromatography. The carboxyl groups of N-acetyl-D-mannosaminuronic acid residues of the acidic polysaccharide was reduced with diborane, and polysaccharide containing equimolar amounts of N-acetyl-D-mannosamine and D-glucose was obtained. A disaccharide mannosaminylglucose was obtained as the major product by the controled acid hydrolysis of the reduced polysaccharide. By nitrous deamination of mannosamine residue in the disaccharide, glucosylglucose was obtained. This disaccharide was hydrolyzed by β-D-glucosidase [EC 3. 2. 1. 21] and it was identified as gentiobiose by gas-liquid chromatography. The disaccharide reduced with borohydride was identified as gentiobiitol by gas-liquid chromatography. The results indicated that the O-β-N-acetyl-D-mannosaminyluronic acid-(l↑6)-glucose unit was present in the acidic polysaccharide. The reduced polysaccharide was deacetylated by hydra-zine and deaminated with nitrous acid. The polysaccharide thus obtained was subjected to mild acid hydrolysis and the hydrolysate was analyzed by gas-liquid chromatography. The fractions corresponding to maltose and gentiobiose were detected, indicating that the acidic polysaccharide also contained α-1, 4-linkages. From these data and previous results, the structure of the acidic polysaccharide was proposed as follows:
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Hase et al. (1972) studied this question.