Exopolysaccharides produced by a clinical strain of Burkholderia cepacia isolated from a cystic fibrosis patient Original Research Article

Burkholderia cepacia is an opportunistic pathogen involved in pulmonary infections related to cystic fibrosis. A clinical strain, BTS13, was isolated and the production of exopolysaccharides was tested growing the bacteria on two different media, one of which was rich in mannitol as carbon source. The primary structure of the polysaccharides was determined using mostly mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy. On both media an exopolysaccharide having the following repeating unit was produced:→5)-β-Kdop-(2→3)-β-d-Galp2Ac-(1→4)-α-d-Galp-(1→3)-β-d-Galp-(1→