Polysaccharide Composition of Cell Wall of the Sausage and Mycelial Forms of Hasegawaea japonica

Abstract

The sausage (S-) and mycelial (M-) forms of the fission yeast Hasegawaea japonica have been grown in a synthetic medium. The mycelial mutant was obtained by treatment with N-methyl-N-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine followed by plating on solid medium at 30°C. Although the wild strain formed S-form cells, the mutant strain was stable and had M-form cells in several media. Comparative analysis of their walls showed that the M-form wall had greater quantities of alkali-insoluble glucan and smaller quantities of alkali-soluble glucan than the S-form wall had. The alkali-soluble glucan from the cell wall obtained from the S-form cells contained a larger amount of a-glucan and 1, 6-β-glucan than the fractions from the cell wall obtained from the M-form cells. The alkali-insoluble glucan from the cell wall obtained from the M-form cells contained a larger amount of 1, 3-β-glucan and α-glucan than the fractions from the cell wall obtained from the S-form cells. These results indicated that the glucan contents of alkali-soluble and -insoluble glucan were greatly affected by the shape of H japonica cells