Construction, purification and characterization of a fusion protein of malt
ose-binding protein of Escherichia coli and the fructosyltransferase of Str
eptococcus mutans is described. With the purified protein, in vitro synthes
is of inulin was performed. The obtained polysaccharide was characterized b
y high-performance size-exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) and static light s
cattering (SLS) in dilute aqueous and dimethyl sulfoxide solution. For all
samples very high molecular weights between 60 x 10(6) and 90 x 10(6) g/mol
and a remarkable small polydispersity index of 1.1 have been determined. S
mall root-mean-square radii of gyration point to a compact conformation in
dilute solution. No difference between native and enzymatically synthesized
inulin was observed by X-ray powder diffraction and thermoanalysis of soli
d samples. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.