The Chemical Structure of Lipid A

Abstract

In Salmonella minnesota lipopolysaccharide the lipid A backbone, a substituted diphosphorylated beta 1,6-linked D-glucosamine disaccharide molecule, carries approximately seven residues of fatty acids: one each of dodecanoic, hexadecanoic, D-3-hydroxytetradecanoic and D-3-O-(tetradecanoyl)-tetradecanoic acid in ester linkage and two of D-3-hydroxytetradecanoic acid in amide linkage. In the present study it is shown that treatment of the lipopolysaccharide with alkali at elevated temperature leads, through a beta-elimination reaction, to the generation of amide-bound delta 2-tetradecanoic acid. This suggested that the 3-hydroxyl group of amide-bound hydroxy fatty acids carried a substituent. To elucidate the nature of the substituent, free Salmonella lipid A was methylated with methyl iodine in the presence of silver salts followed by mild acid hydrolysis, a procedure which is known to cleave amide (and not ester) bonds selectively. In the hydrolysate, by means of combined gas-liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry the methyl esters of 3-O-(dodecanoyl)-tetradecanoic and 3-O-(hexadecanoyl)-tetradecanoic acid were identified. This shows that in lipid A amide-linked 3-hydroxytetradecanoic acid residues are 3-O-acylated by dodecanoic and hexadecanoic acid, respectively. Quantitative analyses suggest that the Salmonella lipid A backbone is substituted by four D-3-hydroxytetradecanoyl residues, two being present as esters and two as amides. The nonhydroxylated fatty acids are not bound directly to the backbone. Rather, they are attached to hydroxyl groups of 3-hydroxytetradecanoyl residues: specifically, tetradecanoic acid substitutes ester-bound and dodecanoic and hexadecanoic acid amide-bound 3-hydroxytetradecanoic acid.