The compositional analysis of bacterial extracellular polysaccharides by high-performance anion-exchange chromatography.

A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with pulsed-amperometric detection (PAD) was developed for the compositional analysis of the acidic, neutral, and basic monosaccharides recovered from the acid hydrolysis of bacterial cell wall polysaccharides. This HPLC-PAD method involved the chromatography of the acid hydrolysis products on a CarboPac PA-1 anion-exchange column of pellicular resin, with PAD detection following postcolumn addition of alkali. Complete resolution of a mixture of 19 monosaccharides, comprising 9 neutral, 3 basic, and 7 acidic sugars, frequently found in bacterial polysaccharides was achieved within 60 min by the system. The presence of amino acids in the mixture was shown not to affect the analysis. This protocol was applied to the compositional analysis of 2 extracellular polysaccharides produced by Escherichia coli, colanic acid, and K30 antigen, which share constituent monosaccharides. The overproduction of extracellular polysaccharide in E. coli CWG56 was shown to be a consequence of deregulation of K30 biosynthesis and not of coexpression of an additional polymer.