Electrophoretic behavior and size distribution of the acidic polysaccharides produced by the bacteria Bradyrhizobium (Chamaecytisus) strain BGA-1 and Bradyrhizobium japonicum USDA 110

Effect of thorium on the growth and capsule morphology of Bradyrhizobium

The thorium effect on Bradyrhizobium growth was assayed in liquid media. Th4+ inhibited the growth of Bradyrhizobium (Chamaecytisus) BGA-1, but this effect decreased in the presence of suspensions of live or dead bacterial cells. Th4+ induced the formation of a gel-like precipitate when added to a dense suspension of B. (Chamaecytisus) BGA-1 cells. Viable Bradyrhizobium cells remained in suspension after precipitate formation. Thorium was recovered in the precipitate, in which polysaccharide, lipopolysaccharide and proteins were also found. After Th4+ addition, the morphology of B. (Chamaecytisus) BGA-1 or Bradyrhizobium japonicum USDA 110 sedimented cells studied by scanning electron microscopy changed from an entangled network of capsulated bacteria to uncapsulated individual cells and an amorphous precipitate. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy showed that thorium was mainly in the amorphous fraction. Precipitate was also formed between B. (Chamaecytisus) BGA-1 and Al3+, which was also toxic to this bacterium. Precipitate induced by Th4+ or Al3+ was found in all Bradyrhizobium and Sinorhizobium strains tested, but not in Rhizobium, Salmonella typhimurium, Aerobacter aerogenes or Escherichia coli. These results suggest a specific defence mechanism based on metal precipitation by extracellular polymers.

Determination of the chemical structure of the capsular polysaccharide of strain B33, a fast-growing soya bean-nodulating bacterium isolated from an arid region of China

We have determined the structure of a polysaccharide from strain B33, a fast-growing bacterium that forms nitrogen-fixing nodules with Asiatic and American soya bean cultivars. On the basis of monosaccharide analysis, methylation analysis, one-dimensional 1H- and 13C-NMR and two-dimensional NMR experiments, the structure was shown to consist of a polymer having the repeating unit -->6)-4-O-methyl-alpha-D-Glcp-(1-->4)-3-O-methyl-beta-D-GlcpA-(1--> (where GlcpA is glucopyranuronic acid and Glcp is glucopyranose). Strain B33 produces a K-antigen polysaccharide repeating unit that does not have the structural motif sugar-Kdx [where Kdx is 3-deoxy-D-manno-2-octulosonic acid (Kdo) or a Kdo-related acid] proposed for different Sinorhizobium fredii strains, all of them being effective with Asiatic soya bean cultivars but unable to form nitrogen-fixing nodules with American soya bean cultivars. Instead, it resembles the K-antigen of S. fredii strain HH303 (rhamnose, galacturonic acid)n, which is also effective with both groups of soya bean cultivars. Only the capsular polysaccharide from strains B33 and HH303 have monosaccharide components that are also present in the surface polysaccharide of Bradyrhizobium elkanii strains, which consists of a 4-O-methyl-D-glucurono-L-rhamnan.