Methods for the identification and analysis of l‐altrose in bacterial polysaccharides

Abstract Methods for the detection, quantitation, and configurational analysis of altrose in bacterial polysaccharides were developed and are described. Thin layer chromatography (TLC) is first used to qualitatively detect altrose and other monosaccharides in polysaccharide hydrolysates. Alditol acetates are then prepared from these hydrolysates and analyzed by either gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) or GLC-mass spectroscopy (GLC-MS), depending on the nature of the constituent sugars. These data allow the calculation of either the relative or absolute neutral sugar composition (using an internal standard) of a given polysaccharide. The absolute configuration of altrose and other constituent sugars in bacterial polysaccharides was easily determined by GLC analysis of acetylated diastereomeric glycosides prepared from chiral (−)-2-octanol and polysaccharide hydrolysates. Extracellular polysaccharides (EPS) produced by Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens were analyzed by these techniques, and we report here that L -altrose was found in the EPS from five different strains of this organism.