Lipopolysaccharides of Vibrio cholerae

Abstract

An account of our up to date knowledge of the genetics of biosynthesis of Vibrio cholerae lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is presented in this review. While not much information is available in the literature on the genetics of biosynthesis of lipid A of V. cholerae, the available information on the characteristics and proposed functions of the corepolysaccharide (core-PS) biosynthetic genes is discussed. The genetic organizations encoding the O-antigen polysaccharides (O-PS) of V. cholerae of serogroups O1 and O139, the disease causing ones, have been described along with the putative functions of the different constituent genes. The O-PS biosynthetic genes of some non-O1, non-O139 serogroups, particularly the serogroups O37 and O22, and their putative functions have also been discussed briefly. In view of the importance of the serogroup O139, the origination of the O139 strain and the possible donor of the corresponding O-PS gene cluster have been analyzed with a view to having knowledge of (i) the mode of evolution of different serogroups and (ii) the possible emergence of pathogenic strain(s) belonging to non-O1, non-O139 serogroups. The unsolved problems in this area of research and their probable impact on the production of an effective cholera vaccine have been outlined in conclusion.

The Sweet Tooth of Bacteria: Common Themes in Bacterial Glycoconjugates

“…WbdD is the terminating enzyme and thus regulates chain length by methylat-ing the glycan: the higher the concentration of this enzyme, the shorter the glycan chains (174). An ABC transporter formed by the Wzm-Wzt heterodimer transports the structure to the periplasm (63,150,(175)(176)(177) (Fig. 6B).…”

Complete Genome Sequence of the Marine Fish Pathogen Vibrio anguillarum Harboring the pJM1 Virulence Plasmid and Genomic Comparison with Other Virulent Strains of V. anguillarum and V. ordalii

“…It has been shown that the regions for O-antigen biosynthesis in V. cholerae O1, O22, O31, O37, and O139 are surrounded by gmhD and rjg genes and that this region is also important for the production of capsule of non-O1 V. cholerae O31 and O139 (7,10,11,12). In the V. anguillarum serotype O1 strain, virA (wbhS) and virB (wbhR) are involved in LPS biosynthesis and have been shown to be important for virulence (53).…”

vttR A and vttR B Encode ToxR Family Proteins That Mediate Bile-Induced Expression of Type Three Secretion System Genes in a Non-O1/Non-O139 Vibrio cholerae Strain

“…Strains exhibit extensive phenotypic and genetic heterogeneity and can be classified according to several different criteria. For example, serogroup designation is based on the structure of the somatic O antigen, whereas the pathogenicity of a strain is determined by its ability to colonize a human host and cause the severe and potentially lethal diarrheal disease known as cholera (15,26,68). Importantly, more than 200 different serogroups have been identified, and both pathogenic and nonpathogenic strains of different serogroups have been found to coexist in environmental reservoirs worldwide (27,77).…”