Biosynthesis of the wall acidic polysaccharide in Bacillus cereus AHU 1356

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Abstract
Biosynthetic studies on an acidic polysaccharide, comprising galactose, rhamnose, N‐acetylglucosamine and sn‐glycerol 1‐phosphate, were carried out with a membrane system obtained from Bacillus cereus AHU 1356. Incubation of the membranes with UDP‐[14C]Gal, TDP‐[14C]Rha and UDP‐[14C]GlcNAc resulted in the formation of four or more labeled‐sugar‐linked lipids and a labeled polysaccharide. Data on structural analysis of the sugar moieties released from the glycolipids, together with results of enzymatic conversion of [14C]galactose‐linked lipid and [14C]Rha‐Gal‐linked lipid to higher‐oligosaccharide‐linked lipids and polysaccharide, led to the conclusion that the acidic polysaccharide is probably synthesized through the following pathway: Gal‐PP‐lipid→Rha‐Gal‐PP‐lipid→GlcNAc‐Rha‐Gal‐PP‐lipid→Rha‐GlcNAc‐Rha‐Gal‐PP‐lipid→glycerol‐P‐Rha‐GlcNAc‐Rha‐Gal‐PP‐lipid→[‐(glycerol‐P‐)Rha‐GlcNAc‐Rha‐Gal‐]n‐PP‐lipid→polysaccharide. Theglycero‐phosphate residues seem to be derived from phosphatidylglycerol.

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