Increase in glucan formation by Botrytis cinerea and analysis of the adherent glucan

• DOI: 10.1007/bf00170559
• Publication Date: 2004-08-14T16:55:23Z
• Authors: Petra Pielken; Peter Stahmann; Hermann Sahm
• Keywords: 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences

Glucan production by Botrytis cinerea increased from 1 g/l to 3 g/l when KNO3 or urea replaced asparagine as the nitrogen source. A further enhancement up to 5 g/l was obtained with nitrogen-limited medium or non-growing cells. Under these conditions an extracellular glucan layer was attached to the mycelium. The adherent glucan made up 60% of the total amount of glucan produced and thus increased the total glucan yield to 13 g/l. An enzymatic analysis of the adherent glucan indicated that only about every fifth molecule of the main chain was substituted by a glucose unit. In contrast, in the free glucan of culture filtrates glucose units were distributed at approximately every second to third residue of the main chain.