[A study of polysaccharides in fast growing "Rhizobium" (author's transl)]

This work is an attempt to use the composition of exopolysaccharides in the Rhizobium genus as a criterium of taxonomic importance. The organisms were first cultured in media and under conditions which led to the production of as many polysaccharides as possible. The medium chosen for proliferation conditions was Wright's medium; for conditions of non-proliferation conditions was Wright's medium; for conditions of non-proliferation, a minimal medium without nitrogen was used. The polysaccharides synthesised in Wright's medium consists in neutral sugars such as glucose, galactose, mannose and sometimes rhamnose and in uronic acid in various quantities. If no mannose is found in the polysaccharides when they are synthesised in non-proliferation conditions and if mannans are found in yeast broth, it may be thought, as suggested by Humphrey, that mannose would come from those mannans. The study of the composition of these polysaccharides enables us to sort out two groups of fast growing Rhizobium. The first one, relatively uniform, corresponds to the strains of R. leguminosarum, trifolii and phaseoli. In these strains, the polysaccharides are made of about 70% of neutral sugars and 20% of glucuronic acid.