TY - JOUR
T1 - A novel mechanism for glucose side-chain formation in rhamnose-glucose polysaccharide synthesis
AU - Ozaki, Kazuhisa
AU - Shibata, Yukie
AU - Yamashita, Yoshihisa
AU - Nakano, Yoshio
AU - Tsuda, Hiromasa
AU - Koga, Toshihiko
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by a Grant to promote Multi-disciplinary Research Projects, and Grants-in-Aid for Developmental Scientific Research (12557186, 12357013, and 14571954) and Encouragement of Young Scientist (13771265) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, of Japan.
PY - 2002/12/4
Y1 - 2002/12/4
N2 - We have cloned two genes (rgpH and rgpI) that encode proteins for the formation of the glucose side-chains of the Streptococcus mutans rhamnose-glucose polysaccharide (RGP), which consists of a rhamnan backbone with glucose side-chains. The roles of rgpH and rgpI were evaluated in a rhamnan-synthesizing Escherichia coli. An E. coli strain that harbored rgpH reacted with antiserum directed against complete RGP, whereas the E. coli strain that carried rgpI did not react with this antiserum. Although E. coli:rgpH reacted strongly with rhamnan-specific antiserum, co-transformation of this strain with rgpI increased the number of glucose side-chains and decreased immunoreactivity with the rhamnan-specific antiserum significantly. These results suggest that two genes are involved in side-chain formation during S. mutans RGP synthesis in E. coli: one gene encodes a glucosyltransferase, and the other gene probably controls the frequency of branching. This is the first report to identify a gene that is involved in regulation of branching frequency in polysaccharide synthesis.
AB - We have cloned two genes (rgpH and rgpI) that encode proteins for the formation of the glucose side-chains of the Streptococcus mutans rhamnose-glucose polysaccharide (RGP), which consists of a rhamnan backbone with glucose side-chains. The roles of rgpH and rgpI were evaluated in a rhamnan-synthesizing Escherichia coli. An E. coli strain that harbored rgpH reacted with antiserum directed against complete RGP, whereas the E. coli strain that carried rgpI did not react with this antiserum. Although E. coli:rgpH reacted strongly with rhamnan-specific antiserum, co-transformation of this strain with rgpI increased the number of glucose side-chains and decreased immunoreactivity with the rhamnan-specific antiserum significantly. These results suggest that two genes are involved in side-chain formation during S. mutans RGP synthesis in E. coli: one gene encodes a glucosyltransferase, and the other gene probably controls the frequency of branching. This is the first report to identify a gene that is involved in regulation of branching frequency in polysaccharide synthesis.
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U2 - 10.1016/S0014-5793(02)03661-X
DO - 10.1016/S0014-5793(02)03661-X
M3 - Article
C2 - 12459482
AN - SCOPUS:0037021455
SN - 0014-5793
VL - 532
SP - 159
EP - 163
JO - FEBS Letters
JF - FEBS Letters
IS - 1-2
ER -