Isolation of D-Fucosamine from Bacillus cereus

Abstract

Crumpton and Davies¹ first reported the isolation and characterization of D-fucosamine (2-amino-, 2 : 6-dideoxy-D-galactose) from the soluble polysaccharide moiety of the lipopolysaccharide obtained from the gram negative bacterium, Chromobacterium violaceum (N.C.T.C. 7917). More recently L-fucosamine has been found in the soluble polysaccharides of type V pneumococcus² and Citrobacter freundii 05 : H30. (In a personal communication, Prof. G. T. Barry stated that a sample of fucosamine isolated by him from Citrobacter freundii 05 : H30 exhibited an infrared spectrum that was identical to that of a sample of D-fucosamine isolated by us from C. violaceum. Specific rotations of the two compounds were of similar value but of opposite sign. (See following communication).) Preliminary reports of the occurrence of D-fucosamine in various species of the genus Bacillus have also recently appeared^3,4. We now wish to report the isolation and characterization of D-fucosamine from the insoluble cell-wall residue of an organism identified as Bacillus cereus. The occurrence of both D- and L-fucosamine in both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial species is, therefore, established.