STUCTURAL AND SEROLOGICALL RELATEDNESS OF THE O-ANTIGENS OF PROTEUS PENNERI 1 AND 4 FROM A NOVEL PROTEUS SEROGROUP O72

K. Zych^a, Z. Sidorczyk^a, N.P. Arbatsky^b, F.V. Toukach^b, A.S. Shashkov^b, Y.A. Knirel^b

^aInstitute of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Lodz, Poland
^bN. D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

KEYWORDS: Proteus penneri; O-Antigen; O-specific polysaccharide; O-serogroup; lipopolysaccharide

Eur. J. Biochem., 2002, v.269, pp.358-363

DOI: 10.1046/j.0014-2956.2001.02660.x    (free full text)

O-specific polysaccharides (O-antigens) of Proteus penneri strains 1 and 4 were studied using sugar analysis, ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy, including two-dimensional COSY, H-detected ¹H,¹³C heteronuclear multiple-quantum coherence (HMQC), and rotating-frame NOE spectroscopy (ROESY). The following structures of their tetrasaccharide (strain 1) and pentasaccharide (strain 4) repeating units were established:

  bDGalpNAc
     |3
-4)aDGalp(1-6)bDGlcpNAc(1-3)bDGalpNAc(1-

               aDGlcp        bDGalpNAc
                 |6            |3
-6)bDGlcp(1-3)bDGalpNAc-(1-4)aDGalp(1-

In the polysaccharide of P. penneri strain 4, glycosylation with the lateral Glc residue (75%) and O-acetylation of the lateral GalNAc residue (55%) are nonstoichiometric. This polysaccharide contains also other, minor O-acetyl groups, whose positions were not determined. The structural similarity of the O-specific polysaccharides was consistent with the close serological relatedness of the LPS, which was demonstrated by immunochemical studies with O-antisera against P. penneri 1 and 4. Based on these data, it was proposed to classify P. penneri strains 1 and 4 into a new Proteus serogroup, O72, as two subgroups, O72a and O72b, respectively. Serological cross-reactivity of P. penneri 1 O-antiserum with the LPS of P. penneri 40 and 41 was substantiated by the presence of an epitope(s) on the LPS core region shared by all P. penneri strains studied.

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