Abstract

Abstract Alginates are polysaccharides with many industrial and medical uses, from food additives to encapsulation agents in the emerging transplantation technologies. Alginate is composed of variable proportions of β‐D‐mannuronic acid and α‐L‐guluronic acid linked by 1–4 glycosidic bonds. Traditionally, commercial alginate has been produced by farmed brown seaweeds, but this alginate suffers from heterogeneity in composition and quality partly due to environmental variation. Two bacterial genera, Pseudomonas and Azotobacter, are also capable of producing alginate as an exopolysaccharide. These bacterial alginate producers can provide the means to produce alginates with defined monomer composition and possibly through genetic and protein engineering may allow for the production of ‘tailor made’ bacterial alginates. The paper discusses the mechanisms behind alginate production in bacteria and how they may be used in the commercial production of alginates. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry

Keywords

Glycosidic bondBacteriaFood sciencePolysaccharideChemistryBiotechnologyBiosynthesisBiochemistryPseudomonasBiologyEnzyme

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Year
2010
Type
article
Volume
85
Issue
6
Pages
752-759
Citations
166
Access
Closed

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Cite This

Iain D. Hay, Zahid Ur Rehman, Aamir Ghafoor et al. (2010). Bacterial biosynthesis of alginates. Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology , 85 (6) , 752-759. https://doi.org/10.1002/jctb.2372

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DOI
10.1002/jctb.2372