Glycopeptidolipids from Mycobacterium fortuitum: a variant in the structure of C-mycoside

Strains from the Mycobacterium fortuitum complex contain surface species-specific lipids allowing their precise identification. In M. fortuitum biovar. peregrinum two major glycopeptidolipids, of the C-mycoside type, were characterized by a combination of chemical analyses, NMR, and FAB mass spectrometry. Important information was obtained by mass spectrometry both on their molecular weight and on the peptide and saccharide sequences without any derivatization. The basic structure of the two compounds was shown to be [formula: see text] The disaccharide part linked O-glycosidically to alaninol was either 3,4-di-O-methyl-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl (1----2) 3,4-di-O-methyl-alpha-L-rhamnopyranoside (mycoside I) or 3-O-methyl-alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl (1----2) 3,4-di-O-methyl-alpha-L-rhamnopyranoside (mycoside II). This is an unusual structure of a C-mycoside since neither 6-deoxytalose nor its derivatives are present. Moreover, the oligosaccharide part is linked to the alaninol residue instead of the allo-threonine.