The Acinetobacter baumannii K239 capsular polysaccharide includes heptasaccharide units that are structurally related...

The K239 type capsular polysaccharide (CPS) isolated from Acinetobacter baumannii isolate MAR19-4435 was studied by sugar analysis, one- and two-dimensional ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy. K239 consists of branched heptasaccharide repeats (K-units) comprised of five residues of l-rhamnose (l-Rhap), and one residue each of d-glucuronic acid (d-GlcpA) and N-acetyl-d-glucosamine (d-GlcpNAc). The structure of K239 is closely related to that of the A. baumannii K86 CPS type, though the two differ in the 2,3-substitution patterns on the l-Rhap residue that is involved in the linkage between K-units in the CPS polymer. This structural difference was attributed to the presence of a gtr221 glycosyltransferase gene and a wzy_KL239 polymerase gene in KL239 that replaces the gtr80 and wzy_KL86 genes in the KL86 CPS biosynthesis gene cluster. Comparison of the two structures established the role of a novel Wzy_KL239 polymerase encoded by KL239 that forms the β-d-GlcpNAc-(1→2)-l-Rhap linkage between K239 units. A. baumannii MAR19-4435 was found to be non-susceptible to infection by the APK86 bacteriophage, which encodes a depolymerase that specifically cleaves the linkage between K-units in the K86 CPS, indicating that the difference in 2,3-substitution of l-Rhap influences the susceptibility of this isolate to bacteriophage activity.