PRELIMINARY STRUCTURE DETERMINATION OF THE CAPSULAR POLYSACCHARIDE OFVIBRIO-CHOLERAE O139 BENGAL AL1837

Vibrio cholerae O139 Bengal has recently been identified as a cause of epidemic cholera in Asia. In contrast to V. cholerae O1, V. cholerae O139 Bengal has a polysaccharide capsule. As determined by high-perfor mance anion-exchange chromatography and H-1 nuclear magnetic resonance analysis, the capsular polysaccharide of V. cholerae O139 Bengal stra in A11837 has six residues in the repeating subunit; this includes one residue each of N-acetylglucosamine, N-acetylquinovosamine (QuiNAc), galacturonic acid (GalA), and galactose and two residues of 3,6 -dideo xyxylohexose (Xylhex). The proposed structure is [GRAPHICS] the pro-S hydrogen.