Ion-exchange chromatography of the biologically active extracellular biopolymer produced by D. chlorelloides yielded ten fractions differing in yield, protein content, monosaccharide composition and molecular weight distribution. Their sugar compositional analyses showed rhamnogalactans, substituted to different extent by mannose and glucose, as a dominant EPS component in all fractions (91 %) except one containing arabinogalactan (7 %). In highly branched rhamnogalactans the quantity of linear (1,3-; 1,4- and 1,6-linked) and branched β-D-galactose units (1,3,6-, 1,4,6- and 1,3,4,6-linked) was nearly equal. From various α-L-rhamnose linkages the 1,2,4-linkage was dominant. Data indicate a rhamnogalactan backbone of EPS, branched by terminal mannose and glucose units, and a lot of O-methylated derivatives of galactose residues (2-O-methyl, 2,3-O-dimethyl, 3-O-methyl and 6-O-methyl). In individual fractions their content and type varied. Detail study of the arabinogalactan showed that its backbone consists of 1,3-linked β-D-Galp units; some of them are branched through O-4 by 6-OMe-α-D-Galp- (1 → 2) -α-L-Araf side chain, other through O-6 by 3-OMe-β-D-Galp, 6-OMe-β-D-Galp, β-D-Galp and β-D-Galf.
Keywords: Arabinogalactan; Dictyosphaerium chlorelloides; Ion-exchange chromatography.
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