O-antigen is the most variable cell wall constituent of Gram-negative bacteria. Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica are closely related species. In this work, we present structural and genetic evidence for the close relationship between O-antigens of E. coli O71 and S. enterica O28. The E. coli O71 O-antigen was found to consist of tetrasaccharide-repeating units containing d-GalpNAc, d-Galp, l-Rhap, and d-Quip3NAc, with multiple O-acetyl lateral groups. It is very similar to the known structure of the S. enterica O28 O-antigen, which has the same backbone units, but with a lateral Glc residue instead of O-acetyl groups. The O-antigen gene clusters of E. coli O71 and S. enterica O28 were sequenced and found to contain the same genes with high-level similarity. All of the genes expected for the synthesis of the common backbone structure of the two O-antigens were identified based on homology. It is proposed that the two gene clusters had originated from the same ancestor, and diverged by acquiring prophage genes to carry out side-chain modifications. This is a new pair of the closely related E. coli and S. enterica O-serogroups. The serogroup-specific genes of E. coli O71 and S. enterica O28 were also identified.
Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica, O-antigen structure, O-antigen gene cluster, PCR assay
NCBI PubMed ID: 20482625Journal NLM ID: 9315554Publisher: Elsevier
Correspondence: wangel@nankai.edu.cn
Institutions: Nankai University, Tianjin, China.
Methods: 13C NMR, 1H NMR, NMR-2D, PCR, DNA sequencing, sugar analysis, GLC, de-O-acetylation, genetic methods
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