Abstract
This report identifies and describes the chemical structure of granular material that accumulates in the cytoplasm of Selenomonas ruminantium grown in glucose or lactate medium. The granular material was identified to be glycogen. Its molecular weight was about 2×107 daltons. Conversion into maltose with α-amylase, β-amylase, and isoamylase was 61%, 37%, and 15%, respectively. The glycogen was digested completely byjoint action of β-amylase and isoamylase, and its conversion into maltose was 103%. The average chain length of the glycogen was 23.5. The maximum absorption of the iodine complex of the glycogen was at 520 nm. These results led us to conclude that the chemical structure of this glycogen was similar to that of plant amylopectin, unlike normal microbial or animal glycogen so far known. When S. ruminantium was grown in glucose medium, the amount of glycogen in cells reached about 260 μg/mg dry weight of cells during late exponential phase and early stationary phase.
