Taxonomic group: bacteria / Proteobacteria
(Phylum: Proteobacteria)
Associated disease: infection due to Escherichia coli [ICD11:
XN6P4 
]
NCBI PubMed ID: 20153447Publication DOI: 10.1016/j.bbalip.2010.02.001Journal NLM ID: 0217513Publisher: Elsevier
Correspondence: C.R.H. Raetz <raetz

biochem.duke.edu>
Institutions: Department of Biochemistry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA, Centro de Ciencias Genómicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Av. Universidad s/n, Apdo. Postal 565-A, Cuernavaca, Morelos, CP62210, Mexico
The lipid A of Rhizobium etli, a nitrogen-fixing plant endosymbiont, displays significant structural differences when compared to that of Escherichia coli. An especially striking feature of R. etli lipid A is that it lacks both the 1- and 4'-phosphate groups. The 4'-phosphate moiety of the distal glucosamine unit is replaced with a galacturonic acid residue. The dephosphorylated proximal unit is present as a mixture of the glucosamine hemiacetal and an oxidized 2-aminogluconate derivative. Distinct lipid A phosphatases directed to the 1 or the 4'-positions have been identified previously in extracts of R. etli and Rhizobium leguminosarum. The corresponding structural genes, lpxE and lpxF, respectively, have also been identified. Here, we describe the isolation and characterization of R. etli deletion mutants in each of these phosphatase genes and the construction of a double phosphatase mutant. Mass spectrometry confirmed that the mutant strains completely lacked the wild-type lipid A species and accumulated the expected phosphate-containing derivatives. Moreover, radiochemical analysis revealed that phosphatase activity was absent in membranes prepared from the mutants. Our results indicate that LpxE and LpxF are solely responsible for selectively dephosphorylating the lipid A molecules of R. etli. All the mutant strains showed an increased sensitivity to polymyxin relative to the wild-type. However, despite the presence of altered lipid A species containing one or both phosphate groups, all the phosphatase mutants formed nitrogen-fixing nodules on Phaseolus vulgaris. Therefore, the dephosphorylation of lipid A molecules in R. etli is not required for nodulation but may instead play a role in protecting the bacteria from cationic antimicrobial peptides or other immune responses of plants.
Lipopolysaccharide, Rhizobium etli, Gram-negative bacteria, outer membranes, lipid A phosphatases, LpxE, LpxF
Structure type: oligomer
Location inside paper: p.594, fig.1A
Compound class: LPS, lipid A, glycolipid, phosphoglycolipid
Contained glycoepitopes: IEDB_135394,IEDB_135515,IEDB_141807,IEDB_151531,IEDB_176772,IEDB_534864
Methods: DNA techniques, TLC, ESI-MS, mild acid hydrolysis, biological assays, genetic methods, biochemical methods, assay of polymyxin sensitivity
Biosynthesis and genetic data: genetic data
Related record ID(s): 31197, 31198, 31199, 31200, 31201, 31202, 31203, 31204, 31205, 31206, 31207, 31208
NCBI Taxonomy refs (TaxIDs): 562
Show glycosyltransferases
There is only one chemically distinct structure: