Protoplasts of Aureobasidium pullulans are capable of producing pullulan. Biosynthesis of the polymer pullulan required induction with kinetics similar to those of whole cells. The protoplasts also produced a heteropolysaccharide component containing mannose, glucose, and galactose. The relative proportions of the pullulan and heteropolysaccharide fractions were a function of glucose concentrat...

This method is adapted from a protocol described by Grimsley et al. (1977). For more information about P. patens as a model organism, see The Moss Physcomitrella patens: A Novel Model System for Plant Development and Genomic Studies (Cove et al. 2009a). For details about the growth of P. patens on cellophane overlay plates, see Culturing the Moss Physcomitrella patens (Cove et al. 2009b). For p...

Previous reports from this laboratory demonstrated the synthesis of hyaluronic acid by a cell-free preparation obtained from a strain of Group A streptococcus. The enzymic activity which sedimented at 105,000 x g, but not at 10,000 x g, required the addition of uridine diphospho-N-acetylglucosamine, uridine diphosphoglucuronic acid, and Mg++ for the formation of hyaluronic acid (l-3). Since hya...

A few entomophthoralean species are able to multiply in a protoplast form. The polysaccharide synthases which synthesize the cell wall are inactivated in this form. An inhibitor of one of the key enzymes of wall synthesis, glucan synthase, was isolated from entomophthoralean protoplasts, using silica column chromatography and HPLC. Thin-layer and gas chromatography revealed free fatty acids in ...