Sugar Composition of Lipopolysaccharides of Family Vibrionaceae—Absence of 2-Keto-3-Deoxyoctonate (KDO) with the Exception of Vibrio Parahaemolyticus 06 and Plesiomonas Shigelloides—

Abstract

Extensive studies on the chemistry of 0-antigenic lipopolysaccharides (LPS) of Enterobacteriaceae have been made (52), and chemotaxonomy based on the sugar composition of LPS was subsequently established for Salmonella and Escherichia coli (22, 24). In contrast, very few studies have been reported with Vibrionaceae from the chemotaxonomical point of view on the basis of the sugar composition of LPS while the chemical properties of LPS from V. cholerae (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 29, 30, 35, 37, 39, 40) have been relatively well documented. The sugar composition of 0-antigenic LPS from a representative strain of each of 12 0-serotypes of V. parahaemolyticus was elucidated recently by two research groups, Hisatsune and his colleagues (12) and Miwatani’s group (26). Both groups divided V. parahaemolyticus in almost the same fashion, the former into nine and the latter into eight chemotypes. With regard to 0-antigenic LPS from members of Vibrionaceae other than V. cholerae as well as V. parahaemolyticus, two comparative studies of the sugar composition of LPS were recently carried out, one on group F vibrios and Aeromonas (19) and the other on V. alginolyticus and V. parahaemolyticus (13). Through the latter study, it was found that 2-ket-3-deoxyoctonate (KDO), known generally as a regular component sugar present in gramnegative bacterial LPS, is lacking in the LPS of both V. alginolyticus and V. parahaemolyticus with the exception of V. parahaemolyticus 06 LPS. Furthermore, some KDO-like thiobarbituric acid test-positive substances were shown to be present in LPS from V. parahaemolyticus 07 and 012, and also in three strains of V. alginolyticus.