type cultures nctc london england and the national collection of industrial bacteria ncib aberdeen scotland the strain number for both the nctc and the ncib is 1375 any growth medium which supports the growth of the organism and allows production of a cellulosic pellicle may be employed the level of 2 deoxy d glucose in the medium can range from about 5 to about 95 of the total carbohydrates present the polymer produced by the organisms under these conditions can be entirely u03b2 1 4 d glucan conventional cellulose or may be u03b2 1 4 d glucan containing up to 5 mole of 2 deoxy d glucose as internal or end group substitutions for d glucose thus the present invention provides a method for preparing u03b2 1 4 glucan or u03b2 1 4 d glucan containing up to 5 mole of 2 deoxy d glucose as internal or end group substitutions for d glucose which comprises culturing a cellulose producing microorganism under aerobic fermentation conditions in the presence of assimilable sources of carbon hydrogen and nitrogen said sources comprised of d glucose and 2 deoxy d glucose in a preferred embodiment of the invention there is provided a method for preparing u03b2 1 4 d glucan or u03b2 1 4 d glucan containing up to 5 mole of 2 deoxy d glucose as internal or end group substitutions for d glucose wherein said u03b2 1 4 d glucan or u03b2 1 4 d glucan containing up to 5 mole of 2 deoxy d glucose as internal or end group substitutions for d glucose has a molecular weight of about 7 u00d7 10 5 to about 1 u00d7 10 4 which comprises culturing a cellulose producing microorganism under aerobic fermentation conditions in the presence of.