A pellicle, a gel film of microbial cellulose, is a supermolecular system containing 99% of water by weight, which is closely related to an amorphous structure in it. Using ultra-small-angle neutron scattering, in order to cover over a wide range of length scales from nm to 10 microm, we examined the hierarchical amorphous structure in the microbial cellulose, which is synthesized by a bacteriu...

Cyclic diguanylic acid acts as a regulator for cellulose synthase activity in the bacterium Acetobacter xylinum. We report the x-ray crystal structure of the regulator at atomic resolution. The structure contains two independent molecules that adopt almost identical conformations. The two molecules form self-intercalated units that are stacked on each other. Two different G.G base-pairing modes...

Calcofluor White ST, stilbene derivative used commerically as an optical brightener for cellulose, increased the rate of glucose polymerization into cellulose by resting cells of the gram-negative bacterium Acetobacter xylinum. This bacterium normally produces a ribbon of cellulose that is a composite of crystalline microfibrils. In concentrations above 0.1 mM, Calcofluor disrupts the assembly ...

A total of 55 isolates of Acetobacter diazotrophicus recovered from diverse sucrose-rich host plants and from mealybugs associated with sugarcane plants were characterized by the electrophoretic mobilities of 12 metabolic enzymes. We identified seven different electrophoretic types (ETs), six of which are closely related within a genetic distance of 0.195 and exhibit high DNA-DNA homology. The ...

(72) Inventors: • PIAZZA, Pier Vincenzo F-33077 Bordeaux (FR) • VALLEE, Monique F-33077 Bordeaux (FR) • MARSICANO, Giovanni F-33077 Bordeaux (FR) • FELPIN, François-Xavier F-44322 Nantes (FR) • BELLOCCHIO, Luigi F-33077 Bordeaux (FR) • COTA, Daniela F-33077 Bordeaux (FR) • REVEST, Jean-Michel F-33077 Bordeaux (FR) • VITIELLO, Sergio F-33000 Bordeaux (FR) • SPAMPINATO, Umberto F-33077 Bordeaux (...

Acetobacter suboxydans has for many years been regarded as an organism possessing broad but limited ability to attack sugars and other polyhydroxy compounds (1). More recently, it has become apparent that the organism possesses a number of enzymes for more extensive dissimilation of substrates such as glucose, glycerol, and sorbitol (2). On the other hand, diand tricarboxylic acid cycle activit...

Because numerous attempts to detect an activity for a cellulose synthase in plants have failed, we have taken a different approach toward detecting polypeptides involved in this process. The uniqueness of the structure and function of cyclic diguanylic acid (c-di-GMP) as an activator of the cellulose synthase of the bacterium Acetobacter xylinum makes it an attractive probe to use in a search f...

Recombinant cellulose-binding domain (CBD) derived from the cellulolytic bacterium Clostridium cellulovorans was found to modulate the elongation of different plant cells in vitro. In peach (Prunus persica L.) pollen tubes, maximum elongation was observed at 50 &mgr;g mL-1 CBD. Pollen tube staining with calcofluor showed a loss of crystallinity in the tip zone of CBD-treated pollen tubes. At lo...

Cellulose triacetate prepared from bacterial cellulose of Acetobacter xylinum subsp. sucrofermentans BPR3001A showed a higher degree of polymerization and higher mechanical strength than that from the cotton linter. The fine fibrils of bacterial cellulose required only a short time for acetylation which preserved the high degree of polymerization.

A powerful replica molding methodology to transfer on-demand functional topographies to the surface of bacterial cellulose nanofiber textures is presented. With this method, termed guided assembly-based biolithography (GAB), a surface-structured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) mold is introduced at the gas-liquid interface of an Acetobacter xylinum culture. Upon bacterial fermentation, the generate...