HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Feng, L. Articles by Wang, L. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Feng, L. Articles by Wang, L. Agricola Articles by Feng, L. Articles by Wang, L.

Structural and genetic evidence that the Escherichia coli O148 O antigen is the precursor of the Shigella dysenteriae type 1 O antigen and identification of a glucosyltransferase gene

Lu Feng^1,2,

Andrei V. Perepelov^3,

Guang Zhao^1,2,

¹ TEDA School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Nankai University, 23 HongDa Street, TEDA, Tianjin 300457, P. R. China
² Tianjin Key Laboratory for Microbial Functional Genomics, Nankai University, 23 HongDa Street, TEDA, Tianjin 300457, P. R. China
³ N. D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991 Moscow, Russian Federation
⁴ College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, P. R. China
⁵ School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences (G08), University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

Correspondence
Lei Wang
wanglei{at}nankai.edu.cn

Shigella dysenteriae type 1 is the most virulent serotype of Shigella. Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli O148 is pathogenic and can cause diarrhoea. The following structure was established for the tetrasaccharide repeating unit of the E. coli O148 O antigen: 3)--L-Rhap-(13)--L-Rhap-(12)--D-Glcp-(13)--D-GlcpNAc-(1. This differs from the structure reported earlier for S. dysenteriae type 1 by having a glucose (Glc) residue in place of a galactose (Gal) residue. The two bacteria also have the same genes for O antigen synthesis, with the same organization and high level of DNA identity, except that in S. dysenteriae type 1 wbbG is interrupted by a deletion, and a galactosyltransferase gene wbbP located on a plasmid is responsible for the transfer of galactose to make a novel antigenic epitope of the O antigen. The S. dysenteriae type 1 O antigen was reconstructed by replacing the E. coli O148 wbbG gene with the wbbP gene, and it had the LPS structure and antigenic properties of S. dysenteriae type 1, indicating that the S. dysenteriae type 1 O antigen evolved from that of E. coli O148. It was also confirmed that wbbG of E. coli O148 is a glucosyltransferase gene, and two serotype-specific genes of E. coli O148 and S. dysenteriae type 1 were identified.

The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the sequence reported in this paper is DQ167407.

These authors contributed equally to this work.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				N. Mullane, P. O'Gaora, J. E. Nally, C. Iversen, P. Whyte, P. G. Wall, and S. Fanning Molecular Analysis of the Enterobacter sakazakii O-Antigen Gene Locus Appl. Envir. Microbiol., June 15, 2008; 74(12): 3783 - 3794. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				G. Stevenson, M. Dieckelmann, and P. R. Reeves Determination of Glycosyltransferase Specificities for the Escherichia coli O111 O Antigen by a Generic Approach Appl. Envir. Microbiol., February 15, 2008; 74(4): 1294 - 1298. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				V. Pozsgay, J. Kubler-Kielb, R. Schneerson, and J. B. Robbins Effect of the nonreducing end of Shigella dysenteriae type 1 O-specific oligosaccharides on their immunogenicity as conjugates in mice PNAS, September 4, 2007; 104(36): 14478 - 14482. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]