Unique Regions of the Polysaccharide Copolymerase Wzz₂ from Pseudomonas aeruginosa Are Essential for O-Specific Antigen Chain Length Control.

ABSTRACT: The outer leaflet of the outer membrane of nearly all Gram-negative bacteria contains lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The distal end of LPS may be capped with O antigen, a long polysaccharide that can range from a few to hundreds of sugars in length. The chain length of the polysaccharide has many implications for bacterial survival and consequently is tightly controlled. In the Wzx/Wzy-dependent route of O antigen synthesis, one or more Wzz proteins determine the chain length via an unknown mechanism. To gain insight into this mechanism, we identified and characterized important regions of two Wzz proteins in Pseudomonas aeruginosa serotype O13, which confer the production of "long" (Wzz₁) and "very long" (Wzz₂) chain lengths, respectively. We found that compared to

SUBMITTER: Huszczynski SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6620407 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature