Structure and gene cluster of the O-antigen of Escherichia coli O137.

The O-polysaccharide (O-antigen) was isolated from the lipopolysaccharide of Escherichia coli O137 and studied by sugar analysis and NMR spectroscopy. The following structure of the branched tetrasaccharide repeating unit was established: Formula: see text] Both structure and gene cluster of the E. coli O137 polysaccharide are related to those of the E. coli K40 polysaccharide (Amor et al., 1999), which lacks the side-chain glucosylation but contains serine that is amide-linked to GlcA. Functions of genes in the O137-antigen gene cluster were assigned by a comparison with those in K40 and sequences in the available databases. Particularly, predicted glycosyltransferases encoded in the gene cluster were assigned to the formation of three glycosidic linkages in the O-polysaccharide repeating unit.