Structure of the sialic acid-containing O-specific polysaccharide from Salmonella enterica serovar Toucra O48 lipopolysaccharide.

Lipopolysaccharide was extracted from cells of Salmonella enterica serovar Toucra O48 and, after mild acid hydrolysis (1% AcOH, 1 h, 100 degrees C or 0.1 M NaOH-AcOH, pH 4.5, 5 h, 100 degrees C), the O-specific polysaccharide was isolated and characterized. The core and an oligosaccharide containing a fragment of the repeating unit linked to the core region were also obtained, depending on hydrolysis conditions. On the basis of sugar and methylation analyses and NMR spectroscopy of the hydrolysis products, the biological repeating unit of the O-specific polysaccharide was shown to be the following trisaccharide: -->4)-alpha-Neup5Ac(2-->3)-L-alpha-FucpNAc(1-->3)-D-beta-Glc pNAc(1--> The polysaccharide O-chain was substituted with a single molar equivalent of O-acetyl group, distributed between the Neu5Ac O-9 and O-7 positions, in an approximate ratio of 7 : 3.