PGA was first discovered by Ivánovics and Bruckner as a capsule
of Bacillus anthracis which was released into the medium on autoclaving,
or on aging and autolysis of the cells. A Japanese traditional
food, ‘‘natto’’ (fermented soybeans), is a mixture of
polyglutamic acid and fructan produced by Bacillus natto (Ashiuchi
and Misono, 2005). Several researchers have since then studied the
production of PGA in submerged fermentation (Smf) and solid