The Conversion of Sucrose to a Polysaccharide of the Starch-Glycogen Class by Neisseria from the Pharynx

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Certain, types of Neisseria commonly occurring in the normal throat and nasopharynx and belonging to the species N. perflava Bergey, et al. synthesize large quantities of a polysaccharide of the starch-glycogen class when grown with sucrose. None of the polysaccharide was produced when other common sugars were substituted for sucrose, so that the present phenomenon is obviously different from the long-known production of "reserve carbohydrate" by various bacteria and fungi, but closely resembles the traditional "viscous fermentation of sucrose involved in the formation of polysaccharides of the dextran and levan types. Expts. with washed bacterial cells as well as with actively growing cultures indicated that the synthesis represents a polycondensation reaction of sucrose involving the transfer of glucoside groups to polysaccharide, with the liberation of free fructose, in a way similar to that previously shown for the synthesis of dextran from sucrose by enzymes from Leuconostoc mesenteroides.