Extracellular acidic polysaccharide production by a two-membered bacterial coculture.

A two-membered coculture of strains KYM-7 and KYM-8, identified as Cellulomonas cellulans and Agrobacterium tumefaciens, respectively, produced a large amount of an extracellular polysaccharide, designated APK-78, from starch. Each strain in pure culture produced only very little amount of polysaccharide from starch; the coexistence of the two strains from the early stage of cultivation was indispensable for a large amount of polysaccharide to be produced. The polysaccharide APK-78 was acidic and composed of glucose, galactose, succinic acid, and pyruvic acid with a molar ratio of 8.1:1.0:1.7:1.0, indicating that it is a succinoglycan type of polysaccharide.