Structure and genetics of Escherichia coli O antigens.

Escherichia coli includes clonal groups of both commensal and pathogenic strains, with some of the latter causing serious infectious diseases. O antigen variation is current standard in defining strains for taxonomy and epidemiology, providing the basis for many serotyping schemes for Gram-negative bacteria. This review covers the diversity in E. coli O antigen structures and gene clusters, and the genetic basis for the structural diversity. Of the 187 formally defined O antigens, six (O31, O47, O67, O72, O94 and O122) have since been removed and three (O34, O89 and O144) strains do not produce any O antigen. Therefore, structures are presented for 176 of the 181 E. coli O antigens, some of which include subgroups. Most (93%) of these O antigens are synthesized via the Wzx/Wzy pathway, 11 via the ABC transporter pathway, with O20, O57 and O60 still uncharacterized due to failure to find their O antigen gene clusters. Biosynthetic pathways are given for 38 of the 49 sugars found in E. coli O antigens, and several pairs or groups of the E. coli antigens that have related structures show close relationships of the O antigen gene clusters within clades, thereby highlighting the genetic basis of the evolution of diversity. © The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of FEMS.

Citation

Bin Liu, Axel Furevi, Andrei V Perepelov, Xi Guo, Hengchun Cao, Quan Wang, Peter R Reeves, Yuriy A Knirel, Lei Wang, Göran Widmalm. Structure and genetics of Escherichia coli O antigens. FEMS microbiology reviews. 2020 Nov 24;44(6):655-683

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PMID: 31778182

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