Structures of lipopolysaccharides from Klebsiella pneumoniae. Eluicidation of the structure of the linkage region between core and polysaccharide O chain and identification of the residues at the non-reducing termini of the O chains.

Deamination of LPSs from Klebsiella pneumoniae released O-chain polysaccharides together with a fragment of the core oligosaccharide. The structures of the products from serotypes O1, O2a, O2a,c, O3, O4, O5, and O12 were determined by NMR spectroscopy and chemical methods, identifying the linkage region between the O antigens and the core as well as novel residues at the non-reducing ends of the polysaccharides. All serotypes had an identical linkage between the O chain and core.