Structural studies of the extracellular polysaccharide from Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens strain 49

The structure of Butyrivibrio fibrisolvens strain 49 capsular polysaccharide has been investigated mainly by sugar and methylation analysis, partial chemical degradations. NMR spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry. The results suggest that the polysaccharide is composed of pentasaccharide repeating units having the following structure. The polysaccharide contains O-acetyl groups, one of which is substituted to O-3 of the 4-substituted α-d-Gal p residue, while others occur in non-stoichiometric amounts at other locations.