Structure of the O-polysaccharide of the lipopolysaccharide produced by Taylorella asinigenitalis type strain (ATCC 700933).

Taylorella asinigenitalis sp. nov is a nonpathogenic gram-negative bacterium recently isolated from the genital tract of male donkeys. The bacterium is phenotypically indistinguishable from Taylorella equigenitalis, a pathogen that is the cause of contagious equine metritis, a highly communicable venereal disease of horses. The structural analysis of the lipopolysaccharide produced by T. asinigenitalis sp. nov (ATCC 700933) demonstrated that its O-polysaccharide (O-PS) component is a linear unbranched polymer of repeating disaccharide units composed of 1,3-linked pyranosyl residues of 2,4-diacetamido-2,4-dideoxy-beta-D-quinovose (bacillosamine) and 2-acetamidino-2-deoxy-beta-D-glucuronic acid, and has the structure [-->3)-beta-D-QuipNAc4NAc-(1-->3)-beta-D-GlcpNAmA-(1-->]n. The chemical structure and serological characteristics of the T. asinigenitalis O-PS are distinct from those of the O-PS of the T. equigenitalis type strain, thus providing a cell-surface target macromolecule that can be used to distinguish pathogenic from nonpathogenic Taylorella sp. clinical isolates.