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Taxonomic group: bacteria / Firmicutes (Phylum: Firmicutes)
Associated disease: infection due to Bacillus anthracis [ICD11: XN94F

]

NCBI PubMed ID: 27795328
Publication DOI: 10.1128/JB.00613-16
Journal NLM ID: 2985120R
Publisher: American Society for Microbiology
Correspondence: dmissiak

bsd.uchicago.edu
Institutions: Howard Taylor Ricketts Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois, USA, Department of Microbiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA

The secondary cell wall polysaccharide (SCWP) is thought to be essential for vegetative growth and S-layer assembly in Bacillus anthracis, however the genetic determinants for assembly of its trisaccharide repeat structure are not known. Here we report that WpaA (BAS0847) and WpaB (BAS5274) share features with membrane proteins involved in the assembly of O-antigen lipopolysaccharide in Gram-negative bacteria and propose that WpaA and WpaB contribute to the assembly of the SCWP in B. anthracis Vegetative forms of the B. anthracis wpaA mutant displayed increased lengths of cell chains, a cell separation defect, which was attributed to mislocalization of S-layer associated murein hydrolases BslO, BslS and BslT. The wpaB mutant was defective in vegetative replication during early logarithmic growth and formed smaller colonies. Deletion of both genes, wpaA and wpaB, did not yield viable bacilli and, when depleted of both wpaA and wpaB, B. anthracis cannot maintain cell shape, support vegetative growth or assemble SCWP. We propose that WpaA and WpaB fulfill overlapping glycosyltransferase functions in either polymerizing repeat units or transferring SCWP polymers to linkage units prior to LCP-mediated anchoring of the polysaccharide to peptidoglycan. IMPORTANCE: The secondary cell wall polysaccharide (SCWP) is essential for Bacillus anthracis growth, cell shape and division. SCWP is comprised of trisaccharide repeats [→4]-β-ManNAc-(1→4)-β-GlcNAc-(1→6)-α-GlcNAc-(1→) with α-Gal and β-Gal substitutions, however the genetic determinants and enzymes for SCWP synthesis are not known. Here we identify WpaA and WpaB and report that depletion of these factors affects vegetative growth, cell shape and S-layer assembly. We hypothesize that WpaA and WpaB are involved in the assembly of SCWP prior to transfer of this polymer onto peptidoglycan.

cell wall polysaccharide, Bacillus anthracis, S-layers, envelope assembly, Wzy repeat polymerase

Structure type: polymer chemical repeating unit
Location inside paper: abstract
Trivial name: HF-PS
Compound class: cell wall polysaccharide
Contained glycoepitopes: IEDB_135813,IEDB_136044,IEDB_136906,IEDB_137340,IEDB_137472,IEDB_140108,IEDB_141794,IEDB_141807,IEDB_151528,IEDB_151531,IEDB_190606,IEDB_885813,SB_165,SB_166,SB_187,SB_195,SB_30,SB_7,SB_88

Methods: genetic methods, electron microscopy, immunoblotting, microscopy, bioinformatic analysis
Biosynthesis and genetic data: genetic data
Comments, role: no pages; published polymerization frame was shifted for conformity with other records

NCBI Taxonomy refs (TaxIDs): 1392
Reference(s) to other database(s): GTC:G17290CI, GlycomeDB:37286
Show glycosyltransferases

There is only one chemically distinct structure:

*OC[C@H]1O[C@H](O[C@@H]2[C@@H](CO)O[C@@H](O[C@@H]3[C@@H](CO)O[C@@H](*)[C@H](NC(C)=O)[C@H]3O[C@H]3O[C@H](CO)[C@H](O)[C@H](O)[C@H]3O)[C@@H](NC(C)=O)[C@H]2O)[C@H](NC(C)=O)[C@@H](O[C@H]2O[C@H](CO)[C@H](O)[C@H](O)[C@H]2O)[C@@H]1O[C@@H]1O[C@H](CO)[C@H](O)[C@H](O)[C@H]1O

SVG MW SMILES 3D mol Ionize