Production and secretion of the polysaccharide biodispersan of Acinetobacter calcoaceticus A2 in protein secretion mutants

Biodispersan is an extracellular anionic polysaccharide produced by Acinetobacter calcoaceticus A2 that changes the surface properties of limestone and acts both as a dispersant and as a grinding aid (E. Rosenberg, C. Rubinovitz, A. Gottlieb, S. Rosenhak, and E. Z. Ron, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 54:317-322, 1988; E. Rosenberg, C. Rubinovitz, R. Legmann, and E. Z. Ron, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 54:323-326, 1988; E. Rosenberg, Z. Schwartz, A. Tenenbaum, C. Rubinovitz, R. Legmann, and E. Z. Ron, J. Dispersion Sci. Technol. 10:241-250, 1989). Extracellular fluid also contains a high concentration of secreted proteins that create problems in the purification and application of biodispersan. In order to obtain preparations of biodispersan that contained smaller amounts of protein, we selected mutants of strain A2 that were defective in protein secretion. These mutants produced equal, or even higher, levels of total biodispersan compared with those of the parental strain. Moreover, although there was a significant drop in the concentration of extracellular proteins in the medium, the secretion of biodispersan was unaffected. These results suggest that secretion mutants are potentially useful for the production of extracellular polysaccharides.