Structure of 6-Deoxytalose-Containing Polysaccharide from the Cell Wall of Bifidobacterium adolescentis

Abstract

The isolation and analysis of the cell wall and the polysaccharide-glycopeptide complexes of Bifidobacterium adolescentis YIT4011 are presented. Polysaccharide-glycopeptide complexes, PS-GP1 and PS-GP2, were solubilized from the cell wall by treatment with N-acetylmuramidase. PS-GP1 and PS-GP2 were found to be composed of glucose, 6-deoxytalose and a small amount of glycopeptide. The products of Smith degradation of the PS-GPs had no glucose-containing fraction, but were composed of 1, 2/1, 3-linked 6-deoxytalose. Furthermore, a second Smith degradation of this fraction yielded trisaccharide-glyceraldehyde. These results and methylation analysis led to the conclu-sion that PS-GP 1 or 2 has a repeating unit of →3) 6dTal (β1→3) 6dTal(β1→3) 6dTal (β1→2) 6dTal (α1→2) 6dTal (α1→2) 6dTal (α1-, and that glucose residues are linked to position C-3 of the 2-O-substituted 6-deoxytalose residues.