Structure of the O-polysaccharides of the lipopolysaccharides of Mesorhizobium loti HAMBI 1148 and Mesorhizobium amorphae ATCC 19655 containing two O-methylated monosaccharides Original Research Article

The O-polysaccharide of Mesorhizobium loti HAMBI 1148 was obtained by mild acid degradation of the lipopolysaccharide and studied by sugar and methylation analyses, Smith degradation, and 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopies, including 2D 1H/1H COSY, TOCSY, ROESY, and H-detected 1H/13C HSQC experiments. The O-polysaccharide was found to have a branched hexasaccharide-repeating unit of the following structure: where 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-4-O-methyl-d-glucose (d-GlcNAc4Me) and methyl group on 2-substituted d-rhamnose (Me) shown in italics are present in ∼80% and ∼40% repeating units, respectively. Similar studies of the O-polysaccharide from Mesorhizobium amorphae ATCC 19655 by sugar analysis and NMR spectroscopy revealed essentially the same structure but a higher content of 3-O-methyl-d-rhamnose (∼70%).