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A Single Nucleotide Exchange in the wzy Gene Is Responsible for the Semirough O6 Lipopolysaccharide Phenotype and Serum Sensitivity of Escherichia coli Strain Nissle 1917

Institut für Molekulare Infektionsbiologie, Bayerische Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, 97070 Würzburg,¹ Forschungszentrum Borstel, Zentrum für Medizin und Biowissenschaften, 23845 Borstel,² Institut für Mikrobiologie und Genetik,³ Göttingen Genomics Laboratory, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen,⁴ Bereich Medizin,⁶ Abteilung Biologische Forschung, Ardeypharm GmbH, 58313 Herdecke, Germany,⁷ N. D. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119991, Russia⁵

Received 18 March 2002/ Accepted 8 August 2002

Structural analysis of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) isolated from semirough, serum-sensitive Escherichia coli strain Nissle 1917 (DSM 6601, serotype O6:K5:H1) revealed that this strain's LPS contains a bisphosphorylated hexaacyl lipid A and a tetradecasaccharide consisting of one E. coli O6 antigen repeating unit attached to the R1-type core. Configuration of the GlcNAc glycosidic linkage between O-antigen oligosaccharide and core (ß) differs from that interlinking the repeating units in the E. coli O6 antigen polysaccharide (). The wa_* and wb_* gene clusters of strain Nissle 1917, required for LPS core and O6 repeating unit biosyntheses, were subcloned and sequenced. The DNA sequence of the wa_* determinant (11.8 kb) shows 97% identity to other R1 core type-specific wa_* gene clusters. The DNA sequence of the wb_* gene cluster (11 kb) exhibits no homology to known DNA sequences except manC and manB. Comparison of the genetic structures of the wb_*O6 (wb_* from serotype O6) determinants of strain Nissle 1917 and of smooth and serum-resistant uropathogenic E. coli O6 strain 536 demonstrated that the putative open reading frame encoding the O-antigen polymerase Wzy of strain Nissle 1917 was truncated due to a point mutation. Complementation with a functional wzy copy of E. coli strain 536 confirmed that the semirough phenotype of strain Nissle 1917 is due to the nonfunctional wzy gene. Expression of a functional wzy gene in E. coli strain Nissle 1917 increased its ability to withstand antibacterial defense mechanisms of blood serum. These results underline the importance of LPS for serum resistance or sensitivity of E. coli.

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