Occurrence of two extracellular acidic polysaccharides as products of Rhizobium meliloti 201

The extracellular polysaccharide of Rhizobium meliloti 201 consists of two acidic polysaccharides, APS-I and APS-II. APS-I is composed of D-glucose, D-mannose and D-glucuronic acid in a molar ratio of 3:3:2, whereas APS-II is composed of D-glucose, D-galactose, D-mannose and pyruvic acid in a molar ratio of 4:3:2:1.APS-II was separated from the extracellular polysaccharide preparation by hydrolysing APS-I to its octasaccharide repeating unit with a specific enzyme. APS-I and APS-II were also separated by treatment with cetylpyridinium chloride and by paper electrophoresis of the depyruvylated polysaccharide.