Extracellular viscous material production by Prevotella intermedia

Abstract

We isolated and purified the viscous material from Prevotella intermedia strain 17 and determined its chemical composition. Viscous materials obtained from both the culture supernatant and the cell surface were isolated, purified and compared. Both consisted of carbohydrates and did not contain protein. They gave similar elution patterns by GLCs and had a mannose/glucose ratio of 5 : 1. Neither uronic acid nor hexosamine was detected. Both materials appeared as fine fibrous-like structures under electron microscopy, indicating that the cell-free and cell-bound viscous materials are the same and that they are primarily carbohydrate.