Structural characterization of the O-polysaccharide antigen of Edwardsiella tarda MT 108.

Edwardsiella tarda, a Gram-negative bacterium, is an important cause of hemorrhagic septicemia in fish and also of gastro- and extraintestinal infections in humans. The lipopolysaccharide produced by the fish pathogenic strain E. tarda MT 108 was isolated and the structure of its antigenic O-polysaccharide component determined by the application of chemical analyses, high-resolution 1D and 2D nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry. The polysaccharide was found to be a polymer of a repeating pentasaccharide unit composed of 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-glucose (D-GlcNAc), 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-galactose (D-GalNAc), D-galactose (D-Gal), L-rhamnose (L-Rha), D-galacturonic acid (D-GalA) and (2S,3R)-threonine (1:1:1:1:1:1) having the structure: [structure: see text].