Structure of the phosphopeptidomannans from flocculent and non-flocculent yeast Kluyveromyces lactis.

After extraction from whole cells, and purification by gel filtration, the chemical composition and molecular mass estimation of the cell-wall phosphopeptidomannan (PPM) showed no significant difference respectively between flocculent, weakly, very weakly and non-flocculent Kluyveromyces lactis yeast strains. However, when PPMs were tested as ligands of a lectin, extracted from the flocculent strain, the PPM isolated from the flocculent and weakly flocculent strain were recognized to a higher degree than those isolated from the non and very weakly flocculent strains. Acetolysis of PPM extracted from the four strains produced five oligosaccharide fractions corresponding to mono-, di-, tri-, penta-and hexa-saccharides. The flocculent strain was characterised by a high content of di-and penta-saccharides. The 1H NMR analysis of the oligosaccharides demonstrated that the flocculent strain contained equivalent levels of the two mannobioses: Man(alpha 1-->2)Man and Man(alpha 1-->3)Man and of the two mannotrioses Man(alpha 1-->2)Man(alpha 1-->2)Man and Man(alpha 1-->3)Man(alpha 1-->2)Man. In contrast, the non-flocculent and the very weakly flocculent strains contained a single type of mannobiose Man(alpha 1-->2)Man and one type of mannotriose Man(alpha 1-->2)Man(alpha 1-->2)Man.