Mesophilic Aeromonas UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (GaIU) mutants show two types of lipopolysaccharide structures and reduced virulence

A mutation in galU that causes the lack of O34-antigen lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in Aeromonas hydrophila strain AH-3 was identified. It was proved that A. hydrophila GaIU is a UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase responsible for synthesis of UDP-glucose from glucose 1 -phosphate and UTP. The galU mutant from this strain showed two types of LPS structures, represented by two bands on LPS gels. The first one (slow-migrating band in gels) corresponds to a rough strain having the complete core, with two significant differences: it lacks the terminal galactose residue from the LPS-core and 4-amino-4-deoxyarabi nose residues from phosphate groups in lipid A. The second one (fast-migrating band in gels) corresponds to a deeply truncated structure with the LPS-core restricted to one 3-deoxy-D-manno-oct-2-ulosonic acid (Kdo) and three L-glycero-D-manno-heptose residues. galU mutants in several motile mesophilic Aeromonas strains from serotypes 01, 02, 011, 018, 021 and 044 were also devoid of the O-antigen LPS. The galU mutation reduced to less than 1 % the survival of these Aeromonas strains in serum, decreased the ability of these strains to adhere and reduced by 1.5 or 2 log units the virulence of Aeromonas serotype 034 strains in a septicaemia model in either fish or mice. All the changes observed in the galU mutants were rescued by the introduction of the corresponding single wild-type gene.