Heterogeneity of Lipopolysaccharides from Yersinia pseudotuberculosis: Chemical Characterization of Various Molecular Types

I. N. Krasikova^*, S. I. Bakholdina, and T. F. Solov'eva

Pacific Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Far East Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. 100-letiya Vladivostoka 159, Vladivostok, 690022 Russia; fax: (4232) 31-4050; E-mail: piboc@stl.ru

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received December 24, 1998; Revision received June 5, 1999

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Prior studies have shown some unusual changes in the lipopolysaccharides (LPSs) from Yersinia pseudotuberculosis that occur when the microbe is grown at low temperature; the specific features of these LPSs in comparison with the LPSs from other enteropathogens may be due to unusual thermal adaptation mechanisms. To gain insight into this question, the chemical composition of Y. pseudotuberculosis LPS has been determined. The data indicate that two different S-form LPS species are produced in “cold”-grown bacteria. These have an identical set of bands after SDS-PAGE, similar elution profiles during gel-filtration on a Sephadex G-200 column in the presence of sodium deoxycholate, identical monosaccharide and fatty acid compositions, and similar polymerization degrees, but they have different acylation degree. On the whole, the macromolecularly different LPS populations, varying not only in their smooth or rough nature and hydrophobicity, but also in their localization in the outer membrane and, probably, their interactions with other cell components, are synthesized in "cold"-grown Y. pseudotuberculosis. The biological sense of the heterogeneity and its connection with psychrophilic and pathogenic properties of pseudotuberculosis organisms are discussed.

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KEY WORDS: lipopolysaccharide, O-specific polysaccharide, lipid A, heterogeneity, hydrophobicity, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis

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