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Journal of Bacteriology, January 2008, p. 112-121, Vol. 190, No. 1
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01292-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Cell Wall Carbohydrate Compositions of Strains from the Bacillus cereus Group of Species Correlate with Phylogenetic Relatedness{triangledown}

Christine Leoff,1,3,{dagger} Elke Saile,1,2,{dagger} David Sue,2 Patricia Wilkins,2 Conrad P. Quinn,2 Russell W. Carlson,1* and Elmar L. Kannenberg1,3

Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia, 315 Riverbend Rd., Athens, Georgia 30602,1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd., MS D-11, Atlanta, Georgia 30333,2 Departments of Microbiology and Biotechnology, University of Tübingen, D72076 Tübingen, Germany3

Received 9 August 2007/ Accepted 17 October 2007

Members of the Bacillus cereus group contain cell wall carbohydrates that vary in their glycosyl compositions. Recent multilocus sequence typing (MLST) refined the relatedness of B. cereus group members by separating them into clades and lineages. Based on MLST, we selected several B. anthracis, B. cereus, and B. thuringiensis strains and compared their cell wall carbohydrates. The cell walls of different B. anthracis strains (clade 1/Anthracis) were composed of glucose (Glc), galactose (Gal), N-acetyl mannosamine (ManNAc), and N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc). In contrast, the cell walls from clade 2 strains (B. cereus type strain ATCC 14579 and B. thuringiensis strains) lacked Gal and contained N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc). The B. cereus clade 1 strains had cell walls that were similar in composition to B. anthracis in that they all contained Gal. However, the cell walls from some clade 1 strains also contained GalNAc, which was not present in B. anthracis cell walls. Three recently identified clade 1 strains of B. cereus that caused severe pneumonia, i.e., strains 03BB102, 03BB87, and G9241, had cell wall compositions that closely resembled those of the B. anthracis strains. It was also observed that B. anthracis strains cell wall glycosyl compositions differed from one another in a plasmid-dependent manner. When plasmid pXO2 was absent, the ManNAc/Gal ratio decreased, while the Glc/Gal ratio increased. Also, deletion of atxA, a global regulatory gene, from a pXO2– strain resulted in cell walls with an even greater level of Glc.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. Phone: (706) 542-4439. Fax: (706) 542-4412. E-mail: rcarlson{at}ccrc.uga.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 2 November 2007.

{dagger} C.L. and E.S. contributed equally to this study.

Journal of Bacteriology, January 2008, p. 112-121, Vol. 190, No. 1
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01292-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Leoff, C., Saile, E., Rauvolfova, J., Quinn, C. P, Hoffmaster, A. R, Zhong, W., Mehta, A. S, Boons, G.-J., Carlson, R. W, Kannenberg, E. L (2009). Secondary cell wall polysaccharides of Bacillus anthracis are antigens that contain specific epitopes which cross-react with three pathogenic Bacillus cereus strains that caused severe disease, and other epitopes common to all the Bacillus cereus strains tested. Glycobiology 19: 665-673 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Leoff, C., Choudhury, B., Saile, E., Quinn, C. P., Carlson, R. W., Kannenberg, E. L. (2008). Structural Elucidation of the Nonclassical Secondary Cell Wall Polysaccharide from Bacillus cereus ATCC 10987: COMPARISON WITH THE POLYSACCHARIDES FROM BACILLUS ANTHRACIS AND B. CEREUS TYPE STRAIN ATCC 14579 REVEALS BOTH UNIQUE AND COMMON STRUCTURAL FEATURES. J. Biol. Chem. 283: 29812-29821 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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