THE INDUCTION OF BIREFRINGENCE IN PELLICLES OF BACTERIAL CELLULOSE FROM ACETOBACTER XYLINUM BY LIPIDS

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Abstract
Some lipids, particularly diglycerides, cholesterol, or cholesterol derivatives, are able to induce visible birefringence in pellicles of extracellular bacterial cellulose produced by Acetobacter xylinum when they are added in small amounts to the surface of cultures. This birefringence is due to orientation of a fraction of the cellulose microfibrils, not the cells, in the pellicle. Orientation may begin with small microscopic domains which are present in pellicles of untreated cultures and some of which may overgrow others under the influence of a lipid. How the lipids induce alignment of the microfibrils in the bacterial culture is unknown but the process appears to involve an interaction between newly formed extracellular microfibrils and the microcrystalline surface of the lipid.

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