Structure elucidation of the core regions from Citrobacter O4 and O36 lipopolysaccharides by chemical and enzymatic methods, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, and NMR spectroscopy at 500 MHz.

Novel enterobacterial core oligosaccharides were isolated from Citrobacter O4 and O36 lipopolysaccharides, and their structures were determined by methylation analysis, Smith degradation and enzymatic degradations, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, and two-dimensional phase-sensitive correlated, relayed coherence transfer, double-quantum, triple-quantum-filtered, and nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) 1H NMR spectroscopy at 500 MHz. In the formulas, all hexose residues are D-hexopyranoses, and heptoses are L-glycero-D-manno-heptopyranoses; the alternative locations of the side-chain heptose and pyrophosphorylethanolamine (PPEtN) residues are marked by dashed lines; dOclA stands for 3-deoxy-D-manno-octulosonic acid. (formula; see text) Along with these complete cores, incomplete ones, lacking the hexosamine trisaccharides, occur in the lipopolysaccharides of both types. Qualitative NOE data were in good agreement with the minimum energy conformation of the above O36 oligosaccharide, calculated with the aid of the SUGAR program [Sundin, A., Carter, R. E., & Liljefors, T. (1988) J. Mol. Graphics (in press)].