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Chemical and ultrastructural studies of isolated cell walls of Epidermophyton floccosum

1973; Elsevier BV; Volume: 307; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0005-2736(73)90028-x

1879-2642

Yoshinori Nozawa, Yasuo Kitajima, Yuki Ito,

Polysaccharides Composition and Applications

Cell walls of Epidermophyton floccosum were isolated in high purity after mechanical breakage in the Ribi fractionator, followed by sonication and sodium dodecyl sulfate treatment. Major carbohydrate components of cell wall hydrolsates were glucose (35.2%) and glucosamine (30.9%), with lesser amounts of mannose and galactose. After treating isolated cell walls with acid and alkali, the glucosamine polymer was isolated in the form of insoluble residues, and was shown to be compared of chitin fibers by X-ray diffraction analysis and electron microscopy. The surface architecture of isolated cell walls, observed by scanning and shadowing electron microscopy, revealed some remarkable differences in the length and thickness of the fibrils, and also in the orientation of the network, between the internal and external surfaces of the cell wall. A possible involvement of chitin in cell wall integrity is discussed.