Extracellular polysaccharide from cell suspension cultures of bush bean (Phaseolus vulgaris cv. Contender)

Abstract

High yields of extracellular polysaccharide were obtained from cell suspension cultures of root, hypocotyl, and cotyledon of bush bean. Hydrolysates of the three polysaccharide samples contained the same sugars: galacturonic acid, galactose, glucose, mannose, arabinose, and xylose. The relative amounts of the six sugars were not the same in the hydrolysates from the three sources. The extracellular polysaccharide was produced at all times during the culture cycle. Semilogarithmic plots of increase in cell number, and production of extracellular polysaccharide, indicate that production per cell decreased during the logarithmic phase, and increased at the onset of the stationary phase. Production of extracellular polysaccharide, per culture and per cell, was much higher than that reported for other cell cultures of higher plants.