Structural elucidation of the extracellular and cell-wall teichoic acids of Staphylococcus epidermidis RP62A, a reference biofilm-positive strain

The ability to adhere to artificial surfaces and form biofilms is considered as a virulence factor of Staphylococcus epidermidis, one of the major causes of nocosomial infections, especially those related to implanted medical devices. Cell-wall teichoic acid is known to play an important role in biofilm formation of staphylococci. The structure of the cell wall and extracellular teichoic acids of S. epidermidis RP62A, a reference biofilm-positive strain, was studied by NMR spectroscopy and capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry. Their structures were found to be a (1 --> 3)-linked poly(glycerol phosphate), substituted at the 2-position of glycerol residues with alpha-Glc, alpha-GlcNAc, D-Ala and alpha-Glc6AIa. D-Alanyl acylation of a sugar hydroxyl group seems to be a novel structural feature of teichoic acids from staphylococci. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.