title: The first sugar of the repeat units is essential for the Wzy polymerase activity and elongation of the O-antigen lipopolysaccharide.
abstract: In the Wzx/Wzy-dependent assembled pathway, the assembled O-antigen repeat units are translocated from the cytosolic to the periplasmic face of the inner membrane by a Wzx translocase and then polymerized by the integral membrane protein Wzy to form a glycan chain. We demonstrate that the activity of the Escherichia coli O-antigen polymerase (Wzy) is dependent on the first sugar of the O-antigen repeat unit to produce the O-antigen polymerization and therefore, there is a need for a concerted action with the enzyme transferring the initial HexNAc to undecaprenyl phosphate (UDP-HexNAc: polyprenol-P HexNAc-1-P transferase). Furthermore, in the case of Aeromonas hydrophila Wzy-O34 polymerization activity, the enzyme is permissive with the sugar at the nonreducing end of the O-antigen repeat unit.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Barcelona, Diagonal 643, 08071 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Merino
authors.affiliation: Institute of Virology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Barcelona, Diagonal 643, 08071 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Tomás
mesh_terms: D016980:Aeromonas hydrophila / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D016695:Glycosyltransferases / Q000378:metabolism*; D009154:Mutation; D019081:O Antigens / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D009844:Oligosaccharides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D019897:Periplasm / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D029968:Escherichia coli Proteins; D019081:O Antigens; D009844:Oligosaccharides; D016695:Glycosyltransferases; C513753:Wzy polymerase, E coli
keywords: Escherichia coli; O-antigen polymerization; Wzy O-antigen assembly pathway