Metabolic incorporation of unnatural sialic acids into Haemophilus ducreyi lipooligosaccharides.

ABSTRACT: The lipooligosaccharides (LOS) of Haemophilus ducreyi are highly sialylated, a modification that has been implicated in resistance to host defense and in virulence. In previous work, we demonstrated that H. ducreyi scavenges sialic acid from the extracellular milieu and incorporates those residues into LOS. Here we report that H. ducreyi can use unnatural sialic acids bearing elongated N-acyl groups from three to seven carbon atoms in length, resulting in outer membrane presentation of unnatural sialyl-LOS. The unnatural variant comprises approximately 90% of cell surface sialosides when exogenous substrates are added to the media at micromolar concentrations, despite the availability of natural sialic acid in the growth media. Although they represent the majority of cell surface sialoside

SUBMITTER: Goon S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC152251 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature