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Structure and Dynamics of a Polysaccharide Matrix: Aqueous Solutions of Bacterial Levan

Structure and Dynamics of a Polysaccharide Matrix: Aqueous Solutions of Bacterial Levan

Elizabeta Benigar, Iztok Dogsa, David Stopar, Andrej Jamnik, Irena Kralj Cigić, Matija Tomšič

Langmuir. 2014 Apr 15;30(14):4172-82.

PMID: 24654746

Abstract:

The polysaccharide levan is a homopolymer of fructose and appears in nature as an important structural component of some bacterial biofilms. This paper reports the structural and dynamic properties of aqueous solutions of levan of various origin obtained from dynamic rheological, small-angle X-ray scattering, static and dynamic light scattering, as well as density and sound velocity measurements, determination of polymer branching after per-O-methylation, and microscopy. Besides samples of commercially available levan from Zymomonas mobilis and Erwinia herbicola, we also isolated, purified, and studied a levan sample from the biofilm of Bacillus subtilis. The results of dynamic rheological and light scattering measurements revealed very interesting viscoelastic properties of levan solutions even at very low polymer concentrations. The findings were complemented by small-angle X-ray scattering data that revealed some important differences in the structure of the aqueous levan solutions at the molecular level. Besides presenting detailed dynamic and structural results on the polysaccharide systems of various levans, one of the essential goals of this work was to point out the level of structural information that may be obtained for such polymer systems by combining basic physicochemical, rheological, and various light scattering techniques.

Chemicals Related in the Paper:

Catalog Number	Product Name	Structure	CAS Number	Price
AP9013950	Levan from Erwinia herbicola		9013-95-0	Price

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