The bacterial cellulose (BC) production by a wildstrain Acetobacter xylinum BPR2001 and that by its acetannonproducing mutant, EPI, were compared in a jar fermentor. EPI produced about $28\%$ less BC than the wild-strain. The apparent difference in the cultivation of the two strains was the viscosity increase in the culture broth that was closely associated with acetan production. Increasing the viscosity of the culture broth of EPI by adding agar led to the formation of relatively small and uniform BC pellets, and BC production consequently became two-fold higher than that in the absence of agar and was almost equal to that by BPR2001. Therefore, acetan has an important role in BC production by inducing physical changes in the culture broth of the wild-type strain.
