Abstract
Nitrogen-fixing bacteria isolated from root nodules of Medicago plants growing in the 10 km zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were screened for the production of new water-soluble acidic exopolysaccharides (EPSs). The different strains belonged to the Enteriobacteriaceae family ( Enterobacter ludwigii, Raoultella terrigena, Klebsiella oxytoca), except for one which belonged to the Rhizobiaceae family ( Sinorhizobium meliloti). All of the bacteria produced highly viscous EPS with an average molecular weight comprised between 1 × 10 6 and 3 × 10 6 Da. Five different compositions of EPS were characterized by physico-chemical analyses and 1H NMR spectroscopy: galactose/mannose (2/1), galactose/glucose (1/1), galactose/glucose/mannose (1/2/1), fucose/galactose/glucose (2/1/1) and fucose/galactose/glucose/mannose (2/2/1/1 or 1/1/2/4). Glucuronic acid, a charged monosaccharide, was also recovered in most of the different EPSs.
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