Binding of soluble glycoproteins from sugarcane juice to cells of Acetobacter diazotrophicus

• María-Estrella Legaz ^[1] ; Roberto de Armas ^[2] ; Eva Barriguete ^[1] ; Carlos Vicente ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad Complutense de Madrid

     Universidad Complutense de Madrid

     Madrid, España

     
  2. [2] Department of Plant Physiology, Faculty of Biology, Havana University, Cuba
• Localización: International microbiology: official journal of the Spanish Society for Microbiology, ISSN 1139-6709, Vol. 3, Nº. 3, 2000, págs. 177-182
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Sugarcane produces two different pools of glycoproteins containing a heterofructan as glycidic moiety, tentatively defined as high-molecular mass (HMMG) and mid-molecular mass (MMMG) glycoproteins. Both kinds of glycoproteins can be recovered in sugarcane juice. Fluorescein-labelled glycoproteins are able to bind to Acetobacter diazotrophicus cells, a natural endophyte of sugarcane. This property implies the aggregation of bacterial cells in liquid culture after addition of HMMG or MMMG. Anionic glycoproteins seem to be responsible for the binding activity whereas cationic fraction is not retained on the surface of A. diazotrophicus. Bound HMMG is competitively desorbed by sucrose whereas MMMG is desorbed by glucosamine or fructose. On this basis, a hypothesis about the discriminatory ability of sugarcane to choose the compatible endophyte from several possible ones is proposed.