SEROLOGICAL AND STRUCTURAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ESCHERICHIA-COLI O 98 AND YERSINIA-ENTEROCOLITICA O/11,23 AND O/11,24 LIPOPOLYSACCHARIDE O-ANTIGENS/

The serologically related lipopolysaccharide O-antigens of Yersinia en terocolitica serotypes O:11,23 and O:11,24 and of Escherichia coli O:9 8 were analysed by composition analysis, methylation, and the use of o ne- and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic reasonance methods. They were found to be composed of the same basic linear unbranched polysacchari de of repeating tetrasaccharide units containing 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D -glucose (D-GlcNAc), 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-galacturonic acid (D-GalNAc A), and 2-acetamido-2,6-dideoxy-L-glucose (L-quinovosamine, L-QuiNAc), having the structure ->3)-alpha-L-QuipNAc-(1-->3)-beta-D-GlcpNAc-(1-- >. The lipopolysaccharide O-antigens of E. coli O:98 and I: enterocoli tica O:11,24 were polymers of the above repeating unit, whereas that o f Y. enterocolitica O:11,23 was a linear polymer of the same repeating units in which the alpha-D-GalpNAcA residues were stoichiometrically substituted by acetyl groups at O:3.