Analysis and glycosyl composition of the exopolysaccharide isolated from the floc‐forming wastewater bacterium Thauera sp. MZ1T

Abstract

Summary Conditions were developed for the reproducible production, isolation and characterization of a novel microbial extracellular polysaccharide believed to be involved in transient viscous bulking at an industrial wastewater treatment plant. The exopolysaccharide was extracted from cell‐free culture supernatants of Thauera sp. strain MZ1T grown on a minimal medium with succinate. The purified polymer was found to be approximately 260 kDa in size by gel‐permeation chromatography. The GC–MS analysis of the alditol acetate and per‐ O ‐trimethylsilyl methyl glycoside derivatives revealed that the exopolysaccharide was composed of four monosaccharides including: rhamnose, galacturonic acid, N ‐acetylglucosamine and N ‐acetylfucosamine. Glucose, which also appeared at low levels, is most likely from a co‐eluting glucan. The FTIR and NMR spectroscopic analyses further revealed the presence of esterified component groups on the polymer. These results represent the first published description of a polysaccharide from a member of the genus Thauera , and lay the foundation for a deeper understanding of the factors potentially involved in zoogloeal cluster formation and viscous bulking.

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