Abstract
Membrane glycolipids contain the lactose sequence (galactose linked to glucose), and the oligosaccharide is variously extended such that there is a cell-type-specific repertoire. In this study, binding of Pseudomonas aeruginosa M35 to lipid-linked lactose (Gal beta 1-4Glc [structure 1]), lacto-N-neotetraose (Gal beta 1-4GlcNAc beta 1-3Gal beta 1-4Glc [structure 2]), lacto-N-tetraose (Gal beta 1-3GlcNAc beta 1-3Gal beta 1-4Glc [structure 3]), and asialo GM1 (Gal beta 1-3GalNAc beta 1-4Gal beta 1-4Glc [structure 4]) was evaluated and compared with binding of Escherichia coli C600 to these compounds. Oligosaccharides were linked to the lipid phosphatidylethanolamine dipalmitoate, and the resulting neoglycolipids were resolved on thin-layer chromatograms or coated onto plastic microtiter wells. Lipid-linked structures 1 to 4 were bound by P. aeruginosa and E. coli in the chromatogram assay, but only structure 4 was bound in the microtiter well assay. As shown previously for E. coli binding to lipid-linked structures 1 to 3, binding to lipid-linked structure 4 was not inhibited with oligosaccharide, indicating a requirement for lipid and oligosaccharide. With few exceptions, sialylation and fucosylation of structures 1 to 4 resulted in impaired or abolished binding. Comparisons of binding intensities in the chromatogram assay indicated that recognition by P. aeruginosa and recognition by E. coli are not identical. Presence of the additional disaccharide unit, as in structure 2, resulted in enhanced binding of P. aeruginosa but diminished binding of E. coli relative to lactose binding; fucosylation at galactose of lactose resulted in markedly diminished binding of P. aeruginosa only. In the microtiter well assay, binding of E. coli to asialo GM1 was much weaker than P. aeruginosa binding. The saccharide-plus-lipid-dependent adhesion may be an important factor in increased susceptibility to infection of epithelia already damaged by microbial and chemical agents; the differing strengths of adhesion to the structural variants may relate to tissue tropism.