Soft rot disease in potato is a major problem fields and warehouses all over the world. Although it known that bacteria from genera Pectobacterium Dickeya are main causative agents of soft diseases, recent studies indicate involvement pectinolytic Bacillus Paenibacillus this disease. In present research, samples with symptoms were collected eight governorates Tunisia. Two hundred seventy bacter...

Levansucrase (EC 2.4.1.10) was purified approximately 40-fold from the extracellular culture fluid of Erwinia herbicola NRRL B-1678. The purified enzyme in its native form occurred as an aggregate. Poly(acrylamide) gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate showed an active monomer having a molecular weight of 48,000. The enzyme had a K m for sucrose of 28mM and a pH optimum ...

Levan production by strains of Erwinia herbicola is common, and this property has some taxonomic significance for species differentiation within the "herbicola" group. The extracellular polysaccharide elaborated by strain 403 was characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and methylation analysis. Results showed it to be a typical bacterial levan.