Regulation of O-Antigen Biosynthesis in Yersinia enterocolitica

TL;DRAbstract

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a glycolipid present in the outer membrane (OM) of Gram-negative bacteria. The LPS molecule consists of three regions: (i) the lipid A, a polar glycolipid in which a disaccharide backbone is replaced with six or seven fatty acid; (ii) the core, an oligosaccharide often rich in negatively charged groups and, (iii) the O-antigen, a polysaccharide that protrudes into the surroundings. It is widely known that the lipid A part is responsible for most of the biological effects of LPS; however, there is increasing body of evidence showing that O-antigen modulates the biological activity of lipid A and also plays a critical role in the initial interaction of bacterium with the host. The biosynthesis of heteropolymeric O-antigens whose O-units are composed of different sugar residues starts in the cytoplasm by the activation of sugar 1-phosphates in a reaction with one of the nucleoside triphosphates, followed by different biosynthetic pathways to give rise to cytopl

Chat with Paper

AI Agents for this Paper