Dental plaque collected from the labial aspect of the anterior dentition of children harbored Neisseria that synthesized an extracellular iodophilic polysaccharide (EIP) from sucrose. Gas chromatograms of fully-acetylated EIP derivatives indicated that glucose (97%) and galactose (3%) were the only monosaccharide constituents present. The characterization of the partially-methylated alditol acetate (PMAA) derivatives of EIP indicated that it was primarily a linear 1,4 glucan (75.5%), with some 1,6 glucan (8.4%). The relative linearity of EIP (96.6%) as compared to that of amylose and glycogen was confirmed by spectrophotometric absorption studies.
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