Mechanism of Polysaccharide Production from Sucrose

Abstract

IT has been shown that suitable bacterial cell extracts may act on sucrose with formation of a polyglucoside, dextran^{1, 2}, or of a polyfructoside, levan³. As instances of enzyme-mediated polymer syntheses in vitro, these reactions command wider interest than would necessarily alone be merited by the functional importance of levan and dextran in microbe and plant metabolism. The enzymes responsible for production of levan and dextran from sucrose will conveniently be designated, in accordance with the substrate requirement and reaction end product of the enzyme agent employed, respectively as levansucrase and dextransucrase. It is the former enzyme, as it appears in autolysate fluid of a selected Aerobacter strain³, which is the subject of the present communication.