Isolation and structural characterization of adhesin polysaccharide receptors

Accurate and precise measurement of heteronuclear long-range couplings by a gradient-enhanced two-dimensional multiple-bond correlation experiment

We propose a phase-sensitive gradient-enhanced two-dimensional heteronuclear multiple-bond correlation (psge-2D HMBC) experiment for speedy, accurate, and precise measurement of 2JCH and 3JCH. The experiment does not suppress one-bond correlations. Rather, the value of a desired long-range JCH is obtained from the pertinent cross-peak pattern in the HMBC spectrum, using the corresponding 1JCH correlation pattern as reference. The application of the proposed experiment is illustrated for the trisaccharide raffinose.

Structure of the capsular polysaccharide of Clostridium perfringens Hobbs 5 as determined by NMR spectroscopy

The complete primary structure of the capsular polysaccharide of Clostridium perfringens Hobbs 5, an anaerobic bacterium implicated in food poisoning, was determined. The polysaccharide was isolated from C. perfringens Hobbs 5 cells, after deproteination, by ethanol precipitation and by ion-exchange chromatography. The polysaccharide was comprised of glucose, galactose, mannose, N-acetylglucosamine, N-acetylgalactosamine, and glucuronic acid, in equimolar ratios. Sequence and linkage assignments of the glycosyl residues were obtained by NMR spectroscopy, specifically by the combination of two-dimensional homonuclear TOCSY and NOESY experiments and heteronuclear (1H, 13C) multiple-quantum coherence (HMQC, HMQC-COSY, HMQC-TOCSY and HMBC) experiments. Thus, the envelope polysaccharide of C. perfringens Hobbs 5 was found to be a polymer composed of a hexasaccharide repeating unit with the following structure: [formula: see text] This structure is novel among bacterial cell-surface polysaccharides, and it is the first of many serotypically distinct capsular polysaccharides of C. perfringens to be described.

Adhesin receptors of human oral bacteria and modeling of putative adhesin-binding domains

Adherence by bacteria to a surface is critical to their survival in the human oral cavity. Many types of molecules are present in the saliva and serous exudates that form the acquired pellicle, a coating on the tooth surface, and serve as receptor molecules for adherent bacteria. The primary colonizing bacteria utilize adhesins to adhere to specific pellicle receptor molecules, then may adhere to other primary colonizers via adhesins, or may present receptor molecules to be utilized by secondary colonizing species. The most common primary colonizing bacteria are streptococci, and six streptococcal cell wall polysaccharide receptor molecules have been structurally characterized. A comparison of the putative adhesin disaccharide-binding regions of the six polysaccharides suggests three groups. A representative of each group was modeled in molecular dynamics simulations. In each case it was found that a loop formed between the galactofuranose beta (Galf beta) and an oxygen of the nearest phosphate group on the reducing side of the Galf beta, that this loop was stabilized by hydrogen bonds, and that within each loop resides the putative disaccharide-binding domain.