Complete lipopolysaccharide of Plesiomonas shigelloides O74:H5 (strain CNCTC 144/92). 1. Structural analysis of the highly hydrophobic lipopolysaccharide, including the O-antigen, its biological repeating unit, the core oligosaccharide, and the linkage between them.

The lipopolysaccharide of Plesiomonas shigelloides serotype O74:H5 (strain CNCTC 144/92) was obtained with the hot phenol/water method, but unlike most of the S-type enterobacterial lipopolysaccharides, the O-antigens were preferentially extracted into the phenol phase. The poly- and oligosaccharides released by mild acidic hydrolysis of the lipopolysaccharide from both phenol and water phases were separated and investigated by (1)H and (13)C NMR spectroscopy, MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, and sugar and methylation analysis. The O-specific polysaccharide and oligosaccharides consisting of the core, the core with one repeating unit, and the core with two repeating units were isolated. It was concluded that the O-specific polysaccharide is composed of a trisaccharide repeating unit with the [-->2)-beta-d-Quip3NAcyl-(1-->3)-alpha-l-Rhap2OAc-(1-->3)-alpha-d-FucpNAc-(1-->] structure, in which d-Qui3NAcyl is 3-amino-3,6-dideoxy-d-glucose acylated with 3-hydroxy-2,3-dimethyl-5-oxopyrrolidine-2-carboxylic acid. The major oligosaccharide consisted of a single repeating unit and a core oligosaccharide. This undecasaccharide contains information about the biological repeating unit and the type and position of the linkage between the O-specific chain and core. The presence of a terminal beta-d-Quip3NAcyl-(1--> residue and the -->3)-beta-d-FucpNAc-(1-->4)-alpha-d-GalpA element showed the structure of the biological repeating unit of the O-antigen and the substitution position to the core. The -->3)-beta-d-FucpNAc-(1--> residue has the anomeric configuration inverted compared to the same residue in the repeating unit. The core oligosaccharide was composed of a nonphosphorylated octasaccharide, which represents a novel core type of P. shigelloides LPS characteristic of serotype O74. The similarity between the isolated O-specific polysaccharide and that found on intact bacterial cells and lipopolysaccharide was confirmed by HR-MAS NMR experiments.