Mucoid or alginate-producing strains of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomoms aeruginosa frequently colonise the respiratory tract of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). The virulence factor alginate protects the bacterium from the host immune system and aggnssive antibiotic therapies, thus causing an intractable chronic pulmonary infection which is recognised as a major cause of morbidity and ...

Three phase partitioning, a technique described for protein purification, has been employed for precipitation and purification of three different commercial preparations of alginates. Three phase partitioning works by the addition of /-butanol to aqueous solution of the polymer containing 20-30% ammonium sulphate (w/v). Three phases formed are: upper /-butanol layer, interfacial polymer precipi...

High-performance size exclusion chromatography with multiangle laser light scattering detection (HPSEC-MALLS) was used for characterizing complete molecular weight distributions for a range of commercial alginates used as ice cream stabilizers. For the samples investigated, molecular weight averages were found to vary between 115 000 and 321 700 g/mol and polydispersity indexes varied from 1. 5...