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''Acetobacter spp.'' produce homo and heteropolysaccharides (polysaccharides consisting of one type of sugar or more than one type of sugar, respectively <ref>[http://www.britannica.com/science/heteropolysaccharide Heteropolysaccharide. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 09/05/2015.]</ref>) that attach to the surface of the cells (capsular polysaccharides - '''CPS'''), as well as polysaccharides that are secreted into the medium in which they live (extracellular polysaccharides, or exopolysaccharides - '''EPS'''). CPS is the mechanism that allows pellicle formation in ''Acetobacter'' as the cells tightly associate to one another via CPS <ref name="Perumpuli"></ref>.
The exact composition of the CPS polysaccharides within ''Acetobacter'' pellicles varies between not only species of ''Acetobacter'' and another acetic acid bacteria genus called ''Gluconacetobacter'', but also strains within species. For example, ''Gluconacetobacter xylinus'' produces a homopolysaccharide pellicle consisting of cellulose, ''A. pasteurianus'' subsp. Lovaniensis '' produces a heteropolysaccharide pellicle consisting of glucose and rhamnose, and ''A. tropicalis'' produces a heteropolysaccharide pellicle consisting of glucose, galactose, and rhamnos. The ratios of the different sugars in heteropolysaccharides was shown to vary from strain to strain of ''A. pasteurianus''. As pellicle formation increases, the structure of the polysaccharides that make it up do not change <ref name="Perumpuli"></ref>. The fact that different species/strains use different types of sugars and different ratio or sugars for pellicle formation might partly explain some of the visual differences between pellicles.
Pellicle formation in ''Acetobacter tropicalis'' has been linked to a gene cluster (polABCDE), and disruption of these gene switched the cells from producing CPS (and pellicle formation) to producing EPS instead <ref name="Perumpuli"></ref>..