The structure of the extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) produced by the Rhizobium sp. B strain isolated from atypical nodules on alfalfa has been determined using a combination of chemical and physical techniques (methylation analysis, high pH-anion exchange chromatography (HPAEC), mass spectrometry and 1-D and 2-D NMR spectroscopy). As opposed to the EPS from other strains of Rhizobium, the EPS from the sp. B strain contains D-Glc together with L-Rha and 2-deoxy-D-arabino -hexuronic acid. It is a polymer of a repeating unit having the following structure: --> 4)-beta -D-Glcp -(1 --> 4)-alpha -L-Rhap-(1 --> 3)-beta -D-Glcp -(1 --> 4)-2-deoxy-beta -D-GlcpA-(l --> The polysaccharide also contains 0.6 O-acetyl groups per sugar which have not been located. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.