Taxonomic group: fungi / Ascomycota
(Phylum: Ascomycota)
Associated disease: infection due to Aspergillus fumigatus [ICD11:
XN5Z7 
]
NCBI PubMed ID: 22102815Publication DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1002372Journal NLM ID: 101238921Publisher: San Francisco, CA: Public Library of Science
Correspondence: Thierry Fontaine <tfontain
pasteur.fr>
Institutions: Department of Molecular Cell Biology and Immunology, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Unité des Aspergillus, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France, Unité de Résonance Magnétique Nucléaire des Biomolécules, CNRS URA 2185, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France, Laboratoire de Glycobiologie Structurale et Fonctionnelle, UMR 8576 CNRS, Université des sciences et Technologies de Lille Flandres-Artois, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France, Department of Experimental Medicine and Biochemical Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy, Institute of Microbiology, ETH Hönggerberg, Zürich, Switzerland, Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6, UMR-S 945 Immunité et Infection, Faculté de Médecine Pitié Salpétrière, Paris, France
A new polysaccharide secreted by the human opportunistic fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus has been characterized. Carbohydrate analysis using specific chemical degradations, mass spectrometry, 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance showed that this polysaccharide is a linear heterogeneous galactosaminogalactan composed of α1-4 linked galactose and α1-4 linked N-acetylgalactosamine residues where both monosacharides are randomly distributed and where the percentage of galactose per chain varied from 15 to 60%. This polysaccharide is antigenic and is recognized by a majority of the human population irrespectively of the occurrence of an Aspergillus infection. GalNAc oligosaccharides are an essential epitope of the galactosaminogalactan that explains the universal antibody reaction due to cross reactivity with other antigenic molecules containing GalNAc stretches such as the N-glycans of Campylobacter jejuni. The galactosaminogalactan has no protective effect during Aspergillus infections. Most importantly, the polysaccharide promotes fungal development in immunocompetent mice due to its immunosuppressive activity associated with disminished neutrophil infiltrates
mice, Aspergillus fumigatus, immunosuppression, galactosaminogalactan
Structure type: structural motif or average structure ; 10000-1000000
Location inside paper: p. 7, left column
Trivial name: galactosaminogalactan
Compound class: polysaccharide, galactan
Contained glycoepitopes: IEDB_130648,IEDB_136906,IEDB_137472,IEDB_137473,IEDB_1391961,IEDB_141584,IEDB_141794,IEDB_144989,IEDB_151528,IEDB_190606,IEDB_885822,SB_7
Methods: 13C NMR, 1H NMR, methylation, periodate oxidation, GLC-MS, NMR-2D, ELISA, acid hydrolysis, GLC, Smith degradation, biological assays, deamination, GPC, acetylation, MALDI-TOF, reduction, binding assays, cell growth, immunofluorescence analyses, dialysis, flow cytometry analysis, phenol-sulfuric acid assay, centrifugation, antibody production
Biological activity: galactosaminogalactan not only is not inducing a protective response but is promoting an immunosuppressive function that can trigger disease in immunocompetent mice. Galactosaminogalactan-induced PMN death may be involved, at least in part, in the decrease in neutrophil infiltrates in lungs from galactosaminogalactan-treated mice despite an increased Th17 response. Intracellular recognition of oligosaccharides derived from intracellular hydrolysis of galactosaminogalactan can induce the pro-inflammatory response
Related record ID(s): 50324
NCBI Taxonomy refs (TaxIDs): 746128Reference(s) to other database(s): GTC:G85862QL
Show glycosyltransferases
There is only one chemically distinct structure:
Found 
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