Abstract
THE occurrence of non-carbohydrate substituents in bacterial exopolysaccharides has been well documented. Acetate and pyruvate have frequently been detected either separately or together in the same polysaccharide1,2. More recently, a polysaccharide secreted by Alcaligenes faecalis var. myxogenes was shown to contain succinate3. Although formate is known as a bacterial metabolite it has not previously been reported as an integral component of bacterial extracellular polysaccharides. This may be partly because of the lack of suitable methods for detection or estimation of formate and also because of the known lability of O-acyl groups on carbohydrates.
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SUTHERLAND, I. Formate, a New Component of Bacterial Exopolysaccharides. Nature 228, 280 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1038/228280a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/228280a0
