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Infection and Immunity, November 2000, p. 6182-6188, Vol. 68, No. 11
0019-9567/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Genetic Diversity of the Capsular Polysaccharide C Biosynthesis Region of Bacteroides fragilis

Laurie E. Comstock,1,* Annalisa Pantosti,2 and Dennis L. Kasper1,3

Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital,1 and Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics,3 Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, and Laboratory of Bacteriology and Medical Mycology, Istituto Superiore di Sanita, 00161 Rome, Italy2

Received 22 September 1999/Returned for modification 15 December 1999/Accepted 2 August 2000

A genetic approach was used to assess the heterogeneity of the capsular polysaccharide C (PS C) biosynthesis locus of Bacteroides fragilis and to determine whether distinct loci contain genes whose products are likely to be involved in conferring charged groups that enable the B. fragilis capsular polysaccharides to induce abscesses. A collection of 50 B. fragilis strains was examined. PCR analysis demonstrated that the genes flanking the PS C biosynthesis region are conserved, whereas the genes within the loci are heterogeneous. Only cfiA+ B. fragilis strains, which represent 3% of the clinical isolates of B. fragilis, displayed heterogeneity in the regions flanking the polysaccharide biosynthesis genes. Primers were designed in the conserved regions upstream and downstream of the PS C locus and were used to amplify the region from 45 of the 50 B. fragilis strains studied. Fourteen PS C genetic loci could be differentiated by a combination of PCR and extended PCR. These loci ranged in size from 14 to 26 kb. Hybridization analysis with genes from the PS C loci of strains 9343 and 638R revealed that the majority of strains contain homologs of wcgC (N-acetylmannosamine dehydrogenase), wcfF (putative dehydrogenase), and wcgP (putative aminotransferase). The data suggest that the synthesis of polysaccharides that have zwitterionic characteristics rendering them able to induce abscesses is common in B. fragilis.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Channing Laboratory, 181 Longwood Ave., Boston, MA 02115. Phone: (617) 525-2679. Fax: (617) 731-1541. E-mail: lcomstock{at}channing.harvard.edu.

Infection and Immunity, November 2000, p. 6182-6188, Vol. 68, No. 11
0019-9567/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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