The first committed step in the biosynthesis of sialic acid by Escherichia coli K1 does not involve a phosphorylated N-acetylmannosamine intermediate

A variety of pathogens or commensals use at least one of four distinct mechanisms for decorating their surfaces with sialic acid as a strategy to avoid, subvert or inhibit host innate immunity. The metabolism of sialic acid thus is central to a range of host-pathogen interactions. The first committed step in this process, the production of free N-acetylmannosamine (ManNAc), has not been defined. Here we show that ManNAc-6-phosphate (ManNAc-6-P) is not an obligate sialate precursor in Escherichia coli K1. This conclusion was supported by 31P NMR spectroscopy of E. coli K1 derivatives engineered with different combinations of mutations in nanA (sialate aldolase or lyase), nanK (ManNAc kinase), nanE (ManNAc-6-P 2-epimerase), neuS (polysialyltransferase) and neuB (sialate synthase). The product specificities for purified NanK and NanE were determined by chromatographic analyses. Direct biochemical analysis showed that ManNAc-6-P was stable in a nanE mutant extract. The combined results indicate that neither ManNAc-6-P nor specific or non-specific phosphatase are necessary to generate the requisite ManNAc for sialate biosynthesis. Our results imply that the neuC gene product encodes an UDP-N-acetylglucosamine 2-epimerase that generates ManNAc directly from the dinucleotide-sugar precursor despite detection of only this enzyme's UDP-GlcNAc hydrolase activity. This study describes the first use of NMR for analysing intermediate flux within the sialate biosynthetic pathway.     

Evidence that the Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron chondroitin lyase II gene is adjacent to the chondro-4-sulfatase gene and may be part of the same operon.

The chondroitin lyase II gene from Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron has previously been cloned in Escherichia coli on a 7.8-kilobase (kb) fragment (pA818). In E. coli, the chondroitin lyase II gene appeared to be expressed from a promoter that was about 0.5 kb from the beginning of the gene. However, when a subcloned 5-kb fragment from pA818 which contained the chondroitin lyase II gene and the promoter from which the gene is expressed in E. coli was introduced into B. thetaiotaomicron on a multicopy plasmid (pEG800), the chondroitin lyase specific activity of B. thetaiotaomicron was not altered. Further evidence that the promoter that is recognized in E. coli may not be the promoter from which the chondroitin lyase II gene is transcribed in B. thetaiotaomicron was obtained by making an insertion in the B. thetaiotaomicron chromosome at a point which is 1 kb upstream from the chondroitin lyase II gene. This insertion stopped synthesis of the chondroitin lyase II gene product, as would be predicted if the gene was part of an operon and was transcribed in B. thetaiotaomicron from a promoter that was at least 1 kb upstream from the chondroitin lyase II gene. A region of pA818 which was adjacent to the chondroitin lyase II gene and which included the region used to make the insertional mutation was found to code for chondro-4-sulfatase, an enzyme that breaks down one of the products of the chondroitin lyase reaction. The upstream insertion mutant of B. thetaiotaomicron which stopped synthesis of chondroitin lyase II had no detectable chondro-4-sulfatase activity. This mutant was still able to grow on chondroitin sulfate, although the rate of growth was slower than that of the wild type.