1st Edition

Genetics of Bacterial Polysaccharides

Edited By Joanna B. Goldberg Copyright 1999

    Bacterial surface or secreted polysaccharides are molecules that can function as barriers to protect bacterial cells against environmental stresses, as well as act as adhesins or recognition molecules. In some cases, these molecules are immunodominant antigens eliciting a vigorous immune response, while in other cases the expression of polysaccharides camouflages the bacteria from the immune system. Until recently, most studies on the enzymatic steps and regulation of these molecules were performed on the enteric gram negative bacteria Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium. With the advent of modern bacterial genetics, techniques such as construction and characterization of polysaccharide mutants, cloning of genes and complementation of these mutations, and expression of polysaccharides in heterologous bacterial hosts has prompted investigations into the roles and functions of these molecules for many different bacteria.
    Here, we present the genetic analysis of polysaccharides from a number of bacteria pathogenic to humans and one symbiotic with plants in hopes that similarities in the experimental approaches as well as finding s from such investigations may lead to a general understanding of polysaccharide synthesis and regulation in various bacteria.

    Features

    Genetics of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Polysaccharides, Joanna Goldberg
    Molecular Genetics of Yersinia Lipopolysaccharide, Mikael Skurnik
    Rhizobial Cell Surface Carbohydrates: Their Structures, Biosynthesis, and Functions, Russell W. Carlson, Bradley L. Reuhs, L. Scott Forsberg, and Elmar L. Kannenberg
    Genetics of Capsule and Lipooligosaccharide Biosynthesis in Haemophilus Influenzae, Andrew Preston and Michael A. Apicella
    The Genetics of LPS Synthesis by the Gonococcus, Susie Y. Minor and Emil C. Gotschlich
    Genetics and Vibrio Cholerae 01 and 0139 Surface Polysaccharides, Uwe H. Stroeher and Paul A. Manning
    Streptococcus Capsular Polysaccharides, Janet Yother
    Staphylococcus Aureus Capsules, Jean C. Lee and Chia Y. Lee
    Arabinogalactan in Mycobacteria: Structure, Biosynthesis, and Genetics, Michael McNeil

    Biography

    Joanna B. Goldberg, Ph.D., has been an Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center since 1996. She received her B.A. in Biology with Distinction from Boston University in 1979 and her Ph.D. from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1986. In 1989, Dr. Goldberg joined the faculty at the Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, as an instructor and then assistant professor. Her research has focused on bacterial pathogenesis with an emphasis on polysaccharides as virulence factors and vaccine candidates.