Structure of an Acidic O-Specific Polysaccharide of the Marine Bacterium Pseudoalteromonas sp. KMM 634

N. A. Komandrova¹, S. V. Tomshich¹, L. S. Shevchenko¹, A. V. Perepelov², S. N. Senchenkova², A. S. Shashkov², and Y. A. Knirel²

¹Pacific Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. 100-letiya Vladivostoka 159, Vladivostok, 690022 Russia

²Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky pr. 47, Moscow, 117913 Russia; fax: (095) 135-5328; E-mail: knirel@ioc.ac.ru

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received January 11, 2000

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An acidic O-specific polysaccharide containing D-glucuronic acid (D-GlcA), 2,3-diacetamido-2,3-dideoxy-D-glucuronic acid (D-GlcNAc3NAcA), 2,3-diacetamido-2,3-dideoxy-D-mannuronoyl-L-alanine (D-ManNAc3NAcA6Ala), and 2-acetamido-2,4,6-trideoxy-4-[(S)-3-hydroxybutyramido]-D-glucose (D-QuiNAc4NAcyl) was obtained by mild acid degradation of the lipopolysaccharide of the bacterium Pseudoalteromonas sp. KMM 634 followed by gel-permeation chromatography. The polysaccharide was cleaved selectively with a new solvolytic agent, trifluoromethanesulfonic acid, to give a disaccharide and a trisaccharide with D-GlcNAc3NAcA at the reducing end. The borohydride-reduced oligosaccharides and the initial polysaccharide were studied by GLC-MS and ¹H- and ¹³C-NMR spectroscopy, and the following structure of the linear tetrasaccharide repeating unit of the polysaccharide was established: [figure].

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KEY WORDS: O-antigen, bacterial polysaccharide, Pseudoalteromonas, trifluoromethanesulfonic acid, 2,3-diacetamido-2,3-dideoxy-D-glucuronic acid, 2,3-diacetamido-2,3-dideoxy-D-mannuronoyl-L-alanine, 2-acetamido-2,4,6-trideoxy-4-[(S)-3-hydroxybutyramido]-D-glucose

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