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. 1965 Sep;96(3):651–658. doi: 10.1042/bj0960651

The composition of the cell wall of Aspergillus niger

I R Johnston 1
PMCID: PMC1207199  PMID: 5862404

Abstract

1. The cell-wall composition of Aspergillus niger has been investigated. Analysis shows the presence of six sugars, glucose, galactose, mannose, arabinose, glucosamine and galactosamine, all in the d-configuration, except that a small amount of l-galactose may be present. Sixteen common amino acids are also present. 2. The wall consists chiefly of neutral carbohydrate (73–83%) and hexosamine (9–13%), with smaller amounts of lipid (2–7%), protein (0·5–2·5%) and phosphorus (less than 0·1%). The acetyl content (3·0–3·4%) corresponds to 1·0mole/mole of hexosamine nitrogen. 3. A fractionation of the cell-wall complex was achieved, with or without a preliminary phenol extraction, by using n-sodium hydroxide. Though this caused some degradation, 30–60% of the wall could be solubilized (depending on the preparation). Analyses on several fractions suggest that fractionation procedures bring about some separation of components although not in a clear-cut fashion. 4. Cell-wall preparations were shown to yield a fraction having [α]D approx. +240° (in n-sodium hydroxide) and consisting largely of glucose. This was separated into two subfractions, one of which had [α]D+281° (in n-sodium hydroxide) and had properties resembling the polysaccharide nigeran; the other had [α]D +231° (in n-sodium hydroxide). It is suggested that nigeran is a cell-wall component.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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