In isolated cell walls of bakers' yeast, Northcote and Horne (1) demonstrated the presence of two polysaccharides, an outer glucan envelope and an inner mannan component. Associated with the latter was nitrogenous material, which was assumed to be proteinaceous on the basis of detection (by chromatography) of amino acids in the products of its partial hydrolysis. Subsequently, Falcone and Nickerson (2) reported the isolation from the cell wall of bakers' yeast of a homogeneous structural entity, which consisted of protein and mannan in the ratio (by weight) of 1: 12. The mannan and the protein were shown to be tightly bound, since the polysaccharide could not be precipitated as the copper complex by treatment with cold Fehling's reagent. In the ultracentrifuge, the mannan-protein appeared to be mono-disperse at several concentrations in water and in buffer. Thus, these investigations indicated the presence of natural carbohydrate-protein complexes in the yeast cell wall. The present report describes more detailed studies on the chemical constitution of three polysaccharide-protein entities isolated from cell walls of yeasts.

• PMID: 14408682
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Journal Article

Authors

KESSLER G, NICKERSON WJ

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