A strategy for the synthesis of low-molecular-weight welan gum by eliminating capsule form of Sphingomonas strains

Ming Zhao, Hao Zhang, Xiaoqi Xu, Sha Li, Hong Xu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Welan gum is widely used in food, concrete additives, and oil recovery. Here we changed the capsule form of Sphingomonas strains by knocked out the sortase gene (srtW). The obtained welan gum was mainly composed of mannose, glucose, rhamnose, and glucuronic acid at a molar ratio of 4.0:5.8:1.6:1, respectively. Meanwhile, the molecular weight of welan gum decreased sharply (about 68 kDa). Moreover, the low molecular weight (LMW) welan gum was characterized by FT-IR and NMR spectroscopy. The rheological results revealed that the LMW welan gum solution is a pseudoplastic fluid with a lower apparent viscosity. Furthermore, the oscillation test illustrated stable dynamic viscoelasticity within the temperature range of 5–68 °C and frequency range of 0.01–15 rad/s. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of LMW welan gum production and characterization. These results provide references for LMW welan gum applications, and likely applicable for other biopolymers production.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)11-18
Number of pages8
JournalInternational Journal of Biological Macromolecules
Volume178
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 May 2021

Keywords

  • Characterization
  • Low molecular weight
  • Welan gum

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A strategy for the synthesis of low-molecular-weight welan gum by eliminating capsule form of Sphingomonas strains'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this