Chemical and immunochemical structure of teichoic acid from staphylococcusaureus(Copenhagen)

Structure and mechanism ofStaphylococcus aureusTarM, the wall teichoic acid α-glycosyltransferase

“…The configuration of the glycosidic linkage varies, with certain strains of S. aureus containing WTA with almost exclusively α-or β-O-linked GlcNAc, and others displaying a mixture of anomers (20,21). An important role of WTA sugar modification in S. aureus is that of a receptor for bacteriophage binding.…”

Immunochemical Studies of Staphylococcus aureus Oeding-Haukenes Antigen a5: a Phosphorus-containing Polysaccharide

“…However, the final amount of pure material was about 8 mg a5 from 100 g (wet weight) bacteria. This is far lower than the usual P-RTA of S. aureus, which represents 3040% of the cell wall (Sanderson et al, 1962). During this extraction process the yield of the usual P-RTA was about ten times that of the a5 obtained; a, is therefore a minor component of the wall.…”

“…The lack of reactivity between a, antigen and concanavalin A-Sepharose gel demonstrates that a5 antigen contains neither a terminal a-linked N-acetylglucosamine nor an a-glucoside (Reeder & Ekstedt, 1961). It is also possible that the amounts present were insufficient for demonstrable reactivity (Sanderson et al, 1961). On the other hand, the affinity of a, for WGA shows that the N-acetylglucosamine may be /?-linked; but the interpretation of WGA affinity is difficult as the affinity varied with the molarity of the eluting buffer (Ndulue et al, 1981).…”

Occurrence of antibodies to teichoic acid in patients with diseases other than staphylococcal infection

“…Twofold dilutions of serum were tested against the antigen, a sonicate of S. aureus strain Copenhagen diluted 200-fold. This strain contains both a-and /3-linked N-acetylglucosamine, predominantly the latter (Sanderson et al, 1962). Teichoic acid precipitation lines were identified by comparison with purified teichoic acid from S. aureus Copenhagen as reference.…”

“…The wall teichoic acid of S. aureus is a ribitol-phosphate polymer substituted with 01-and P-linked N-acetylglucosamine residues which are the main antigenic determinants (Sanderson, Strominger and Nathenson, 1962;Torii, Kabat and Bezer, 1964). Cross-reactions can be expected in TAA assay, because many gram-positive and also some gram-negative bacteria have structures that are antigenically similar to 'those of the ribitol teichoic acids of S. aureus (Juergens, Sanderson and Strominger, 1963;Brundish and Baddiley, 1968;Kane and Karakawa, 1969;Aasen and Oeding, 1971;Argaman, Liu and Robbins, 1974;Gmeiner et al, 1977).…”