Structural analysis of the O-antigenic polysaccharide from the enteropathogenic Escherichia coli O125

The structure of the polysaccharide part of the lipopolysaccharide obtained from the enteropathogenic Escherichia coli O125 has been investigated. Methylation analysis, 1H-NMR spectroscopy and 13C-NMR spectroscopy revealed that the polysaccharide is composed of repeating hexasaccharide units. Smith degradation of the native O-polysaccharide resulted in a polysaccharide with four sugar residues in the repeating unit. Information on the sequence of the native O-polysaccharide and the Smith-degraded product was obtained by two-dimensional techniques, namely heteronuclear-multiple-bond-connectivity and NOESY experiments. The structure of the repeating unit of the O-polysaccharide of E. coli strain O125, which has two adjacent branch-point residues, is [sequence: see text].