POLYSACCHARIDE-PROTEIN COMPLEXES 221 



for approximately 40 per cent of the wall material, whereas the 

 relative proportions of the two glucomannan-protein fractions varv 

 from one organism to another. 



On acid hvdrolysis of the complexes and analysis for monosac- 

 charide constituents, glucose and mannose were found in the com- 

 plexes in the percentages given in Table 2. The data indicate the 

 presence of a glucan complex and of two glucomannan complexes 

 in the cell wall. Closely similar carbohydrate composition was found 

 in the three complexes from preparations of bakers' yeast, as well 

 as from preparations of C. albicans. 



TABLE 2 



Relative Content of Glucose and Mannose in Cell Wall Components 

 in Per Cent * 



Glucan-Protein GMP-I GMP-II 



Organism Glucose Mannose Glucose Mannose Glucose Mannose 



Bakers' yeast 95 5 47 53 35 65 



S. cerevisiae 18.29 95 5 45 55 33 67 



C. albicans 806 95 5 48 52 37 63 



C. albicans RM806 97 3 52 48 29 71 



C. albicans 582 98 2 54 46 36 64 



* Data from Kessler and Nickerson ( 1959). 



In all of the glucan preparations that have been isolated, a small 

 amount of mannose has been detected. This is probably due to the 

 fact that the mild alkaline treatment which is used for the fraction- 

 ation of the wall preparations is not able to dissociate the glucoman- 

 nans completely from the insoluble glucan skeleton. A prolonged 

 exposure of the glucan to alkali can remove these traces of gluco- 

 mannan, but at the same time this treatment causes a degradation or 

 even a destruction of the protein that is associated with the carbo- 

 hydrate material. Equal amounts of glucose and mannose are found 

 in the material that can be precipitated from alkaline solution with 

 ammonium sulfate, whereas mannose accounts for approximately 

 two-thirds of the total sugar in the hydrolysate of the glucomannan 

 complex II. 



Chromatographic analysis revealed that the glucomannan-pro- 

 tein II of bakers' yeast is composed of 13 amino acids, the glucan- 

 protein of 15 amino acids, and the glucomannan-protein I of 17 



