The recent literature contains numerous references to the use of partially hydrolyzed dextrans as plasma substitutes (Bull et al., 1949; Thorsen, 1949). Because of this interest, and as part of a general study of bacterial polysaccharide synthesis, the nutritional requirements of the major dextran forming organisms, Leuconostoc mesenteroides and L. dextranicum, are being investigated (Whiteside...

The effects of Leuconostoc mesenteroides strain NTM048 and type strain JCM6124(T) on the murine immune system were characterized. Although the bacterial cells and exopolysaccharides of each strain induced immunoglobulin A production in Peyer's patch cells, the effects of NTM048 were more potent than those of JCM6124(T). Oral administration of the cells of each strain increased the fecal immunog...

The slime forming Leuconostoc mesnreroides is distributed widely in nature and is apparently ubiquitous in sugar factories. Neill, Hehre, Sugg, and Jaffe (1939) found dextran, a fermentation product of L. meenteroides, in all samples of cp sucrose examined. This organism, long a nuisance in the factory, has in recent years attracted wide interest because of the commercial possibilities of the d...

Leuconostoc mesenteroides strains that are resistant to high levels of nisin (up to 25,000 IU/ml in broth) were isolated. These nisin-resistant mutants were evaluated to determine their potential use as starter culture strains for cabbage fermentations. We found that some L. mesenteroides strains could be adapted to high levels of nisin resistance, while others could not. The nisin resistance t...

Bacterial profile modification (BPM), a form of tertiary oil recovery, diverts water from the water-flooded high-permeability zone into the oil-bearing low-permeability zone. During field use, exopolymer-producing bacteria plug the high-permeability zone only in the immediate vicinity of the injection point (the near-well bore region). For effective BPM the plug must penetrate far into the form...

We present a 64-year-old man who was treated with R-CHOP (rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisolone) chemoimmunotherapy for mantle cell lymphoma and developed purulent meningitis, probably caused by Leuconostoc sp. The patient had severe hypogammaglobulinemia, which is a possible complication of rituximab therapy. To our knowledge and after reviewing the availa...

[This corrects the article on p. 227 in vol. 13.].

Leuconostoc citreum CW28 was isolated from pozol, a Mayan fermented corn beverage. This strain produces a cell-associated inulosucrase, the first described in bacteria. Its draft genome sequence, announced here, has an estimated size of 1.98 Mb and harbors 1,915 coding genes, 12 rRNAs, 68 tRNAs, 17 putative pseudogenes, and 1 putative phage.

Seven dextran-producing Leuconostoc strains were differentiated by using a modified randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) protocol that incorporated specific primers designed from conserved regions of dextransucrase genes. RAPD profiles showed intraspecies differences among the Leuconostoc mesenteroides strains tested. This modified RAPD protocol will aid in the differentiation of polymer-p...

The production of slime by microorganisms in the sugar cane juice of sugar mills has been primarily attributed to Leuconostoc mesenteroides (McCleskey, Faville, and Barnett, J. Bacteriol., 54, 697, 1947). In a study of the epiphytic microflora of sugar cane, Mayeux and Colmer (Sugar J., 23, 28, 1960) reported the presence of many organisms on the growing plant but failed to show the presence of...