Extracellular polysaccharides of a bacterium associated with a fungal canker disease of Eucalyptus sp.

Extracellular polysaccharides (EPSs) produced by an Erwinia sp associated with a fungal canker disease of Eucalyptus were fractionated into one polysaccharide that was identified with that produced by Erwinia chrysanthemi strains SR260, Ech1, and Ech9, and the other distinctively different from any other EPS produced by E. chrysanthemi strains so far studied. Their structures were determined using a combination of chemical and physical techniques including methylation analysis, low pressure gel-filtration, and anion-exchange chromatographies, high-pH anion-exchange chromatography, mass spectrometry and 1D and 2D 1H NMR spectroscopy. The new polysaccharide, identified as EPS Teranera, has the following structure: [structure: see text] The molecular weights of the polysaccharides range from 3.2-6.2 x 10(5) and their hydrodynamic properties are those of polydisperse, polyanionic biopolymers with pseudoplastic, non-thixotropic flow characteristics in aqueous solutions.