[Somatic antigens of the Brucella genus. The structure of the O-specific polysaccharide chain of Brucella melitensis lipopolysaccharide].

The phenol-phase soluble antigenic lipopolysaccharide was isolated from Brucella melitensis, strain 565, by the routine phenol/water procedure followed by chromatography on Sepharose 4B. After mild acid hydrolysis and chromatography on Sephadex G-50, the lipopolysaccharide yielded a linear O-specific polysaccharide built up from 1,2-linked 4,6-dideoxy-4-formamido-alpha-D-mannopyranosyl units. The structure of the polysaccharide was deduced mainly from the nuclear magnetic resonance and methylation analyses. The phenol-soluble lipopolysaccharide, isolated from commercial vaccine strain B. abortus 19-BA, on mild hydrolysis afforded material, 13C and 1H-NMR spectra of which were identical to those of the O-specific polysaccharide from B. melitensis 565.