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Mechanisms of Acinetobacter baumannii Capsular Polysaccharide Cleavage by Phage Depolymerases

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Abstract

Aerobic gram-negative bacterium Acinetobacter baumannii has recently become one of the most relevant pathogens associated with hospital-acquired infections worldwide. A. baumannii produces a capsule around the cell, which represents a thick viscous layer of structurally variable capsular polysaccharide (CPS). The capsule protects the bacteria against unfavorable environmental factors and biological systems, including bacteriophages and host immune system. Many A. baumannii phages have structural depolymerases (tailspikes) that specifically recognize and digest bacterial CPS. In this work, we studied the interaction of tailspike proteins of four lytic depolymerase-carrying phages with A. baumannii CPS. Depolymerases of three bacteriophages (Fri1, AS12, and BS46) were identified as specific glycosidases that cleave the CPS of A. baumannii strains 28, 1432, and B05, respectively, by the hydrolytic mechanism. The gp54 depolymerase from bacteriophage AP22 was characterized as a polysaccharide lyase that cleaves the CPS of A. baumannii strain 1053 by β-elimination at hexuronic acid (ManNAcA) residues.

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Abbreviations

CPS:

capsular polysaccharide

FucNAc:

2-acetamido-2-deoxyfucose

GalNAcA:

2-acetamido-2-deoxygalacturonic acid

GLC:

gas-liquid chromatography

HR ESI MS:

high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

Hb:

3-hydroxybutanoyl

HMBC:

heteronuclear multiple-bond correlation

KL:

K locus

Leg:

5,7-diamino-3,5,7,9-tetradeoxy-d-glycero-d-galacto-non-2-ulosonic (legionaminic) acid

ManNAcA:

2-acetamido-2-deoxymannuronic acid

NMR:

nuclear magnetic resonance

QuiNAc4NAc:

2.4-diacetamido-2,4,6-trideoxyglucose (2,4-diacetamido-2,4-dideoxyquinovose)

ROESY:

rotating-frame nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy

TOCSY:

total correlation spectroscop

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Funding

This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 19-14-00273; isolation, monosaccharide analysis, and structural analysis of CPS digestion products), Russian Science Foundation (project No. 18-15-00403; cloning, expression, and purification of BS46 recombinant depolymerase), and Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (agreement 075-15-2019-1671 of October 31, 2019; cultivation of A. baumannii 1053, 1432, and B05).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zelinsky Institute of Organic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991, Moscow, Russia

    Y. A. Knirel, A. A. Kasimova, S. N. Senchenkova, A. S. Shashkov & A. O. Chizhov

  2. Shemyakin–Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, 117997, Moscow, Russia

    M. M. Shneider

  3. Institute of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, Smolensk State Medical University, 214019, Smolensk, Russia

    M. M. Shneider & A. V. Popova

  4. Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (National Research University), 141701, Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region, Russia

    A. V. Popova

  5. State Research Center for Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 142279, Obolensk, Moscow Region, Russia

    A. V. Popova

  6. Higher Chemical College of the Russian Academy of Sciences, D. I. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia, 125047, Moscow, Russia

    A. A. Kasimova

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  1. Y. A. Knirel
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  2. M. M. Shneider
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  3. A. V. Popova
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  4. A. A. Kasimova
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  5. S. N. Senchenkova
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  6. A. S. Shashkov
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  7. A. O. Chizhov
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Correspondence to Y. A. Knirel.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. The authors declare no conflict of interests.

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Knirel, Y., Shneider, M., Popova, A. et al. Mechanisms of Acinetobacter baumannii Capsular Polysaccharide Cleavage by Phage Depolymerases. Biochemistry Moscow 85, 567–574 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0006297920050053

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