Novel O-antigen of Hafnia alvei PCM 1195 lipopolysaccharide with a teichoic acid-like structure

The lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of Hafnia alvei strain PCM 1195 was obtained by the hot phenol/water method. The O-specific polysaccharide was released by mild acidic hydrolysis and isolated by gel filtration. The structure of the O-specific polysaccharide was investigated by H-1, C-13, and P-31 NMR spectroscopy, MALDI-TOF MS, and GC-MS, accompanied by monosaccharide and methylation analysis. It was concluded that the O-specific polysaccharide is composed of a hexasaccharide repeating units interlinked with a phosphate group: {-> 4-alpha-D-Glcp-(1 -> 3)-alpha-L-FucpNAc-(1 -> 3)-[alpha-D-Glcp-(1 -> 4)]-alpha-D-GlcpNAc-(1 -> 3)-alpha-L-FucpNAc-(1 -> 4)-alpha-D-Glcp-(1 -> P}(n). (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.