Structural studies of the enteroinvasive Escherichia coli (EIEC) O28 O-antigenic polysaccharide

The structure of the O-specific side-chain of the lipopolysaccharide from Escherichia coli O28 has been investigated. NMR spectroscopy has been the main method used, complemented with sugar and methylation analyses. The polysaccharide contains one equivalent of O-acetyl groups per repeating unit. Selective cleavage of the O-deacetylated polymer was performed by treatment with aqueous hydrofluoric acid, and resulted in a trisaccharide-glycerol. The polysaccharide thus is of the teichoic acid type and composed of repeating units in which the trisaccharide-glycerol residues are joined by phosphodiester linkages. The O-antigen polysaccharide has the following structure. The absolute configuration of the glycerol moiety as R, (i.e., d-glycerol 1-phosphate) was determined by a new method based on TEMPO oxidation of the polysaccharide, followed by GLC analysis of the (+)-2-butyl ester of the resulting glyceric acid.