Chitinous component of the cell wall of fusarium oxysporum, its structure deduced from chitosanase digestion

Abstract

The cell wall of Fusarium oxysporum was digested with commercial Bacillus pumilus chitosanase. The chitosanase produced low molecular weight heterooligosaccharides consisting of GlcN and GlcNAc from the cell wall. A main component of the digestion products was identified as 2-amino-2-deoxy-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1 →4)-2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-glucopyranose. The chitosanase appeared to be more effective than Streptomyces griseus chitinase for cell wall digestion. Moreover, maltose was unexpectedly found in the digestion products, indicating that the cell wall contains α-1,4-linked glucan chain as a polysaccharide component. © 1996, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.