Synthesis of acceptor substrate analogs for the study of glycosyltransferases involved in the second step of the biosynthesis of O-antigen repeating units.

O-antigens of Gram negative bacteria are polysaccharides covalently attached to lipopolysaccharides (LPS) that have roles as virulence factors. Due to the lack of defined substrates for in vitro assays only a few of the enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of O-antigens have been studied. Many O-antigens have GlcNAc at the reducing end of the oligosaccharide chain linked to pyrophosphate-lipid. We therefore designed and synthesized a series of GlcNAc-pyrophosphate-lipid analogs of the natural GlcNAc-pyrophosphate-undecaprenol acceptor substrate for studies of the acceptor specificities of O-antigen biosynthetic enzymes. We synthesized analogs with modifications of the pyrophosphate bond as well as the lipid chain. These compounds will be useful for the specificity studies of many bacterial glycosyltransferases. Knowledge of the substrate specificities is the basis for the development of specific glycosyltransferase inhibitors that could block O-antigen biosynthesis. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.