A novel N-linked flagellar glycan from Methanococcus maripaludis
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Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Generation of Null Mutants to Elucidate the Role of Bacterial Glycosyltransferases in Bacterial Motility
Published on: March 11, 2022
John Kelly1, Susan M Logan, Ken F Jarrell
1Institute for Biological Sciences, National Research Council, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0R6.
Abstract:
The archaea Methanococcus maripaludis strain Mm900 produces flagella that are glycosylated with an N-linked tetrasaccharide. Mass spectrometric analysis of flagellar tryptic peptides identified a number of tryptic glycopeptides carrying a glycan of mass 1036.4Da, and fragmentation of the glycan oxonium ion indicated that the glycan was a tetrasaccharide. The glycan was purified, following extensive pronase digestion of flagellar filaments, by size-exclusion and anion-exchange chromatography. NMR spectroscopy revealed that the glycan had the following structure: Sug-4-beta-ManNAc3NAmA6Thr-4-beta-GlcNAc3NAcA-3-beta-GalNAc-Asn where Sug is a novel monosaccharide unit, (5S)-2-acetamido-2,4-dideoxy-5-O-methyl-alpha-l-erythro-hexos-5-ulo-1,5-pyranose. This oligosaccharide has significant similarity to the oligosaccharide that was found previously in Methanococcus voltae.
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