[More active synthesis of the polysaccharide, pullulan, by polyploid cultures of Pullularia pullulans]

The polyploid strains of Pullularia pullulans differ from each other and from the haploid strain in the amount of the polysaccharide pullulan liberated into the cultural broth. The highest pullulan synthesizing activity (per unit of the assimilated carbon source and the synthesized biomass) was manifested by the diploid strain of P. pullulans 1125(13) whose cells produced more pullulan (by 75%) within three days of growth than the cells of the haploid culture. The content of pullulan calculated per unit area of the cell surface increased with the level of ploidy: 1.5-1.8 times in the diploid cultures and 3.4 times in the tetraploid culture cf. the parent haploid culture. Apparently, the polyploidy of the P. pullulans culture was accompanied with mutations involved in the synthesis of the extracellular polysaccharide.