ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Polysaccharides of yeasts. I. Surface mannan of Candida albicans

D. Šikl, L. Masler, and Š. Bauer

Chemical Institute Slovak Academy of Sciences, Department of Biochemistry of Saccharides, Bratislava

Abstract: From the surface of cellular membranes of pathogenous yeast Candida albicans BERKHOUT, strain number 109, in water soluble extracellular surface polysaccharide was isolated of the average degree of polymerisation (DP) = 36 and specific rotation [α]_D = = +56°. By means of the methylation analysis the following O -methyle thers of D-mannose were determinated: 2,3,4,6-tetra-O-methyl-; 3,4,6-tri-O-methyl- and 3,4-di-O-methyl- -D-mannose in the ratio 1 3 : 1. In the periodate oxidation, 1.08 mol sodium metaperiodate was consumed and there resulted 0.20 mol of formic acid to 1 mol of anhydromannose. The polyaldehyd formed by periodate oxidation was reduced and hydroíysed. In the hydrolysates glycerol was determined as the only polyalcohol present. The results of periodate oxidation proved the conclusions of methylation analysis. From the decrease of optical rotation after acid hydrolysis and from the infrared spectrum it was found, that in the surface mannan there are a-glycosidic bounds.  On the basis of the above mantioned facts, extracellular surface mannan Candida albicans strain number 109 is a branched polysaccharide composed of the mannopyranose units bound by α-1,2- and α-l,6-bounds. It is different from the intracellular mannan isolated by C. T. Bishop [4] from the cellular walls of Candida albicans by a lower degree of branching.

Full paper in Portable Document Format: 191a21.pdf (in Slovak)

Chemical Papers 19 (1) 21–27 (1965)