An obligately anaerobic, mesophilic, cellulolytic bacterium, strain ISDgT, was isolated from forest soil. Cells of this isolate stained Gram-negative, despite possessing a Gram-positive cell-wall ultrastructure, and were motile, straight rods that formed spherical terminal spores that swelled the sporangium. Cellulose, pectin, polygalacturonic acid, starch, xylan, arabinose, cellobiose, fructos...

Many extracellular proteins produced by Erwinia chrysanthemi require the out gene products for transport across the outer membrane. In a previous report (S. Y. He, M. Lindeberg, A. K. Chatterjee, and A. Collmer, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88:1079-1083, 1991) cosmid pCPP2006, sufficient for secretion of Erwinia chrysanthemi extracellular proteins by Escherichia coli, was partially sequenced, rev...

Fusarium wilt (Panama disease) caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (FOC) represents a significant threat to banana (Musa spp.) production. Musa AAB is susceptible to Race 1 (FOC1) and Race 4 (FOC4), while Cavendish Musa AAA is found to be resistant to FOC1 but still susceptible to Race 4. A polygalacturonase (PGC3) was purified from the supernatant of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense r...

A novel agarolytic bacterium KY-YJ-3, producing extracellular agarase, was isolated from the freshwater sediment of the Sincheon River in Daegu, Korea. On the basis of gram-staining data, morphology, and phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rDNA sequence, the isolate was identified as Cellvibrio sp. By ammonium sulfate precipitation followed by Toyopearl QAE-550C, Toyopearl HW-55F, and Mono-Q colum...

Plant and their products have always been a source of various drugs and excipients used in pharmaceutical formulations. Pectin, a naturally occurring polysaccharide, has in recent years gained increased importance. The benefits of natural pectin are also appreciated by scientists and consumer due to its biodegradability. Pectin is the methylated ester of polygalacturonic acid and it is commerci...

An apoplastic isoperoxidase from zucchini (APRX) was shown to bind strongly to polygalacturonic acid in their Ca 2 1 induced conformation. By homology modeling, we were able to identify a motif of four clustered arginines (positions 117, 262, 268, and 271) that could be responsible for this binding. To verify the role of these arginine residues in the binding process, we prepared three mutants ...

The rapid release of HzOz by elicited plant cells, recently termed the oxidative burst, was investigated in suspension-cultured soybean (Glycine max Merr. cv Kent) cells stimulated with a purified polygalacturonic acid (PCA) elicitor. Examination of the elicited cells by fluorescence microscopy revealed that virtually every living cell participates in the elicitor-induced H202 burst. Measuremen...

Pectin, a naturally occurring polysaccharide, has in recent years gained increasingly in importance. The benefits of natural pectin are also more and more appreciated by scientists and consumer due to its biodegradability. Pectin is the methylated ester of polygalacturonic acid. It is commercially extracted from citrus peels and apple pomace under mildly acidic conditions. Pectins are divided i...

Six endopolygalacturonases from Botrytis cinerea (BcPG1 to BcPG6) as well as mutated forms of BcPG1 and BcPG2 were expressed transiently in leaves of Nicotiana benthamiana using agroinfiltration. Expression of BcPG1, BcPG2, BcPG4, BcPG5, and mutant BcPG1-D203A caused symptoms, whereas BcPG3, BcPG6, and mutant BcPG2-D192A caused no symptoms. Expression of BcPG2 caused the most severe symptoms, i...