Chain stiffness of heteropolysaccharide from Aeromonas gum in dilute solution by dynamic light scattering

Dynamic light scattering measurements have been made on 15 fractions of aeromonas (A) gum, an extracellular heteropolysaccharide produced by the strain Aeromonas nichidenii , with dimethylsulfoxide containing 0.2 M lithium chloride as the solvent at 25°C. Data for the translational diffusion coefficient D covering a molecular weight range from 4.5 × 10 5 to 2.1 × 10 6 and ratios of the z ‐average radius of gyration 〈 s 2 〉 z 1/2 to the hydrodynamic radius R H (calculated with previous 〈 s 2 〉 z data) suggest that the polymer behaves like a semiflexible chain in this solvent similar to the stiffness of cellulose derivatives. Thus the D data are analyzed on the basis of the Yamakawa–Fujii theory for the translational friction coefficient of a wormlike cylinder by coarse‐graining the heteropolysaccharide molecule. Excluded‐volume effects are taken into account in the quasi‐two‐parameter scheme, as was done previously for 〈 s 2 〉 z and [η] (the intrinsic viscosity) of A gum in the same solvent. The molecular weight dependence of R H is found to be explained by the perturbed wormlike chain with a persistence length of 10 nm, a linear mass density of 1350 nm −1 , an excluded‐volume strength parameter of 1.3 nm, and a chain diameter of 2.8 nm. These parameters are in substantial agreement with those estimated previously from 〈 s 2 〉 z and [η] data, demonstrating that the solution properties ( D , 〈 s 2 〉 z , and [η]) of the heteropolysaccharide are almost quantitatively described by the current theories for wormlike chains in the molecular weight range studied. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 65: 387–394, 2002