Novel O-antigen of Hafnia alvei PCM 1195 lipopolysaccharide with a teichoic acid-like structure.

The lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of Hafnia alvei strain PCM 1195 was obtained by the hot phenol/water method. The O-specific polysaccharide was released by mild acidic hydrolysis and isolated by gel filtration. The structure of the O-specific polysaccharide was investigated by (1)H, (13)C, and (31)P NMR spectroscopy, MALDI-TOF MS, and GC-MS, accompanied by monosaccharide and methylation analysis. It was concluded that the O-specific polysaccharide is composed of a hexasaccharide repeating units interlinked with a phosphate group: {-->4-alpha-D-Glcp-(1-->3)-alpha-L-FucpNAc-(1-->3)-[alpha-D-Glcp-(1-->4)]-alpha-D-GlcpNAc-(1-->3)-alpha-L-FucpNAc-(1-->4)-alpha-D-Glcp-(1-->P}(n).