In bacterial biofilms, high molecular weight, secreted exopolysaccharides can serve as a scaffold to which additional carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids adhere, forming the matrix of the developing biofilm. Here we report methods to extract and purify high molecular weight (>15 kDa) exopolysaccharides from biofilms of eight human pathogens, including species of Staphylcococcus, Klebsiella, Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas, and a toxigenic strain of Escherichia coli O157:H7. Glycosyl composition analysis indicated a high total mannose content across all strains with P. aeruginosa and A. baumannii exopolysaccharides comprised of 80–90% mannose, K. pneumoniae and S. epidermidis strains containing 40–50% mannose, and E. coli with ∼10% mannose. Galactose and glucose were also present in all eight strains, usually as the second and third most abundant carbohydrates. N-acetyl-glucosamine and galacturonic acid were found in 6 of 8 strains, while arabinose, fucose, rhamnose, and xylose were found in 5 of 8 strains. For linkage analysis, 33 distinct residue-linkage combinations were detected with the most abundant being mannose-linked moieties, in line with the composition analysis. The exopolysaccharides of two P. aeruginosa strains analyzed were consistent with the Psl carbohydrate, but not Pel or alginate. The S. epidermidis strain had a composition rich in mannose and glucose, which is consistent with the previously described slime associated antigen (SAA) and the extracellular slime substance (ESS), respectively, but no polysaccharide intracellular adhesion (PIA) was detected. The high molecular weight exopolysaccharides from E. coli, K. pneumoniae, and A. baumannii appear to be novel, based on composition and/or ratio analysis of carbohydrates.

Alginate is a polysaccharide produced by certain seaweeds and bacteria that consists of mannuronic acid and guluronic acid residues. Seaweed alginate is used in food and industrial chemical processes, while the biosynthesis of bacterial alginate is associated with pathogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Alginate lyases cleave this polysaccharide into short oligo-uronates and thus have the potential to be utilized for both industrial and medicinal applications. An alginate lyase gene, algMsp, from Microbulbifer sp. 6532A, was synthesized as an E.coli codon-optimized clone. The resulting 37 kDa recombinant protein, AlgMsp, was expressed, purified and characterized. The alginate lyase displayed highest activity at pH 8 and 0.2 M NaCl. Activity of the alginate lyase was greatest at 50°C; however the enzyme was not stable over time when incubated at 50°C. The alginate lyase was still highly active at 25°C and displayed little or no loss of activity after 24 hours at 25°C. The activity of AlgMsp was not dependent on the presence of divalent cations. Comparing activity of the lyase against polymannuronic acid and polyguluronic acid substrates showed a higher turnover rate for polymannuronic acid. However, AlgMSP exhibited greater catalytic efficiency with the polyguluronic acid substrate. Prolonged AlgMsp-mediated degradation of alginate produced dimer, trimer, tetramer, and pentamer oligo-uronates.

Bacteriophage tailspike proteins act as primary receptors, often possessing endoglycosidase activity toward bacterial lipopolysaccharides or other exopolysaccharides, which enable phage absorption and subsequent DNA injection into the host. Phage CBA120, a contractile long-tailed Viunalikevirus phage infects the virulent Escherichia coli O157:H7. This phage encodes four putative tailspike proteins exhibiting little amino acid sequence identity, whose biological roles and substrate specificities are unknown. Here we focus on the first tailspike, TSP1, encoded by the orf210 gene. We have discovered that TSP1 is resistant to protease degradation, exhibits high thermal stability, but does not cleave the O157 antigen. An immune-dot blot has shown that TSP1 binds strongly to non-O157:H7 E. coli cells and more weakly to K. pneumoniae cells, but exhibits little binding to E. coli O157:H7 strains. To facilitate structure-function studies, we have determined the crystal structure of TSP1 to a resolution limit of 1.8 Å. Similar to other tailspikes proteins, TSP1 assembles into elongated homotrimers. The receptor binding region of each subunit adopts a right-handed parallel β helix, reminiscent yet not identical to several known tailspike structures. The structure of the N-terminal domain that binds to the virion particle has not been seen previously. Potential endoglycosidase catalytic sites at the three subunit interfaces contain two adjacent glutamic acids, unlike any catalytic machinery observed in other tailspikes. To identify potential sugar binding sites, the crystal structures of TSP1 in complexes with glucose, α-maltose, or α-lactose were determined. These structures revealed that each sugar binds in a different location and none of the environments appears consistent with an endoglycosidase catalytic site. Such sites may serve to bind sugar units of a yet to be identified bacterial exopolysaccharide.