STRUCTURE OF THE O-SPECIFIC POLYSACCHARIDE OF A SEROLOGICALLY SEPARATE STRAIN PROTEUS PENNERI 2 FROM A NEW PROPOSED SEROGROUP O66

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

^aN. D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
^bResearch Center Borstel, Center for Medicine and Biosciences, Germany
^cInstitute of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Lodz, Poland

KEYWORDS: Proteus penneri; Lipopolysaccharide; O-specific polysaccharide; 2,3 Diacetamido-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-mannose, 6-Deoxy-L-talose

European J. Biochem., 1999, v. 261, pp. 392-397

DOI: 10.1046/j.1432-1327.1999.00250.x    (free full text)

Bacteria of the genus Proteus are a common cause of urinary tract infections which may result in severe complications, such as pyelonephritis and formation of kidney stones. Proteus penneri is a new species proposed for strains formerly described as Proteus vulgaris biogroup I. Unlike strains of P. mirabilis and P. vulgaris, those of P. penneri are not serologically classified. In our chemical and immunochemical studies of Proteus O-antigens, we determined the structure of the O-specific polysaccharide chain of P. penneri strain 2 lipopolysaccharide.

Sugar analysis revealed D-glucose, 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-glucose, 6-deoxy-L-talose (L-6dTal) and 2,3-diacetamido-2,3,6-trideoxy-L-mannose (L-RhaNAc3NAc). The last-named sugar was isolated in the pure state and characterised by the specific optical rotation and ¹H- and ¹³C-NMR spectroscopic data. Methylation analysis showed that the polysaccharide is branched with the lateral RhaNAc3NAc residue and the Glc residue at the branching point. In addition to monosaccharides, a partially methylated Glc-6dTal disaccharide was detected by GLC-MS. Partial acid hydrolysis of the polysaccharide resulted in a branched trisaccharide containing GlcNAc and RhaNAc3NAc at the non-reducing ends and Glc at the reducing end. These data and data of NMR spectroscopic analysis, including two-dimensional rotating-frame NOE spectroscopy (ROESY) and H-detected ¹H,¹³C heteronuclear multiple-quantum coherence (HMQC) experiments, suggested that the polysaccharide has a non-stoichiometrically O-acetylated tetrasaccharide repeating unit having the following structure:

  bLRhap2NAc3NAc
     |3                   
-4)aDGlcp(1-3)[45%AcO(1-2)]aL6dTalp(1-3)bDGlcpNAc(1-

The O-antigen studied has the unique composition and structure and, therefore, P. penneri strain 2 may be considered as a representative of a new Proteus O-serogroup.

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