Upon investigation of Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 15F capsular polysaccharide (CPS), we discovered that it had a different phosphorylation substituent, namely glycerol-2-phosphate like the other serogroup 15 CPS rather than the originally reported 0.2 equivalent of phosphate or phosphocholine. Furthermore, we also determined the locations of the two previously unassigned O-acetyl groups present in the repeating unit of the 15F CPS, and carried out full NMR assignments of the 15F as well as 15A CPS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCapsular polysaccharides (CPS) are the key virulent factors in the pathogenesis of Streptococcus pneumoniae. The previously unknown CPS structures of the pneumococcal serotype 28F and 28A were thoroughly characterized by NMR spectroscopy, chemical analysis and AF4-MALS-dRI. The following repeat unit structures were determined: -4)[α-l-Rhap-[4-P-2-Gro]]-(1-3)-α-d-Sug-[6-P-Cho]-(1-3)-β-l-Rhap-[2-OAc]-(1-4)-β-d-Glcp-(1-; 28F: Sug = Glcp, Mw: 540.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCapsular polysaccharides (CPS) are crucial virulence factors of The previously unknown CPS structures of the pneumococcal serogroup 16 (serotypes 16F and 16A) were thoroughly elucidated by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and verified by chemical analysis. The following repeat unit structures were determined: 16F, -3)-α-l-Rha-[4-P-1-Gro]-(1-3)-α-d-Glc-[(6-P-1)-Gro]-(1-3)-β-l-Rha-[2-OAc]-(1-4)-β-d-Glc-(1-; 16A, -3)-β-d-Gal-[2-OAc (70%)]-(1-3)-α-l-Rha-(1-2)-α-l-Rha-(1-3)-α-d-Gal-[(6-P-1)-Gro]-(1-3)-β-d-Gal-(1-4)-β-d-Glc-(1- (OAc, O-acetyl substitution; P-1-Gro, glycerol-1-phosphate substitution) A further analysis of CPS biosynthesis of serotypes 16F and 16A, in conjunction with published gene bioinformatics analysis and structures of related serotypes, revealed presumable specific function of glycosyltransferase, acetyltransferase, phosphotransferase, and polymerase. The functions of glycosyltransferases WcxN and WcxT were proposed for the first time, and they were assigned to catalyze linkage of α-l-Rha-(1-3)-α-d-Glc and α-l-Rha-(1-2)-α-l-Rha, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStreptococcus pneumoniae is characterised into 92 serotypes based on antigenic reactions of commercial rabbit sera to the capsular polysaccharides. During development of a bioinformatic serotyping tool (PneumoCaT), an isolate exhibited a novel codon at residue 385 of the glycosyltransferase gene wcwK encoding a distinct amino acid, which differentiates genogroup 7. Investigation by repeat serotyping and Quellung reaction revealed a novel pattern of factor sera with the isolate reacting very strongly with 7f, but also with 7e factor sera.
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