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Structural characterization and ecological roles of a novel exopolysaccharide from the deep-sea psychrotolerant bacterium Pseudoalteromonas sp. SM9913

¹ State Key Lab of Microbial Technology, Marine Biotechnology Research Center, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, P. R. China
² Department of Biochemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA

Correspondence
Yuzhong Zhang
zhangyz{at}sdu.edu.cn

Pseudoalteromonas sp. SM9913 is a psychrotolerant bacterium isolated from deep-sea sediment. The structural characterization and ecological roles of the exopolysaccharide (EPS) secreted by this strain were studied in this work. The yield of the EPS increased as the culture temperature decreased in the range 30–10 °C, and it reached 5.25 g l^–1 (dry weight) under optimal growth conditions (15 °C, 52 h). EPS fraction was purified and its structure was identified by the combination of NMR spectra, high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) analysis and methylation analysis. The ratio of the sugar units, the acetyl group and the ethoxyl group was close to 4 : 5 : 1. The major sugar unit of the EPS was 6-linked glucose (61.8 %); other sugar units present included terminal arabinofuranosyl (11.0 %) and glucopyranosyl (11.2 %) residues and a small amount of other sugar derivatives. Its structure was different from EPSs reported for other marine bacteria. Besides the structural elucidation of the EPS, its ecological roles were studied. This EPS could enhance the stability of the cold-adapted protease MCP-01 secreted by the same strain through preventing its autolysis. It could bind many metal ions, including Fe²⁺, Zn²⁺, Cu²⁺, Co²⁺. It was also a very good flocculating agent and could conglomerate colloidal and suspended particles. These results indicated that the EPS secreted by strain SM9913 might help this strain enrich the proteinaceous particles and the trace metals in the deep-sea environment, stabilize the secreted cold-adapted proteases and avoid its diffusion. This is believed to be the first report on the structure of the EPS secreted by a deep-sea psychrotolerant bacterium and its ecological roles. According to these results and other studies, a schematic diagram of the lifestyle of the deep-sea psychrotolerant strain SM9913 is suggested.

Supplementary data are available with the online version of this paper.