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. 2015 Oct 23:5:15573.
doi: 10.1038/srep15573.

Genetic analysis of capsular polysaccharide synthesis gene clusters in 79 capsular types of Klebsiella spp

Yi-Jiun Pan  1 , Tzu-Lung Lin  1 , Chun-Tang Chen  1 , Yi-Yin Chen  1 , Pei-Fang Hsieh  1 , Chun-Ru Hsu  1 , Meng-Chuan Wu  1 , Jin-Town Wang  1   2
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Genetic analysis of capsular polysaccharide synthesis gene clusters in 79 capsular types of Klebsiella spp

Yi-Jiun Pan et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

A total of 79 capsular types have been reported in Klebsiella spp., whereas capsular polysaccharide synthesis (cps) regions were available in only 22 types. Due to the limitations of serotyping, complete repertoire of cps will be helpful for capsular genotyping. We therefore resolved the rest 57 cps and conducted comparative analysis. Clustering results of 1,515 predicted proteins from cps loci categorized proteins which share similarity into homology groups (HGs) revealing that 77 Wzy polymerases were classified into 56 HGs, which indicate the high specificity of wzy between different types. Accordingly, wzy-based capsular genotyping could differentiate capsule types except for those lacking wzy (K29 and K50), those sharing identical wzy (K22 vs. K37); and should be carefully applied in those exhibited high similarity (K12 vs. K41, K2 vs. K13, K74 vs. K80, K79 vs. KN1 and K30 vs. K69). Comparison of CPS structures in several capsular types that shared similarity in their gene contents implies possible functions of glycosyltransferases. Therefore, our results provide complete set of cps in various types of Klebsiella spp., which enable the understandings of relationship between genes and CPS structures and are useful for identification of documented or new capsular types.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Genetic alignment of the K4, K33 and K40 cps gene cluster.
Open reading frames (ORFs) are shown as arrows. The upper panel indicates conserved genetic organization of cps gene cluster. Atypical gene contents are marked in red color. GT, glycosyltransferase.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Comparison of cps gene clusters and capsule structures in capsular types with similar cps gene content.
Open reading frames (ORFs) are shown as arrows. Conserved genes, man genes, rml genes or transposases are shown in black. Other gene products that were clustered into the same HGs are shown in same colors, and the amino acid similarities (%) are indicated below the ORFs. Genes only present in either of the two types are shown in white. GT, glycosyltransferase. Enzymes most likely involved in linkage formation are indicated along with their capsular structures. The differences of capsule structures from two types are shown in red. a, K1 and K58; b, K2 and K13; c, K12 and K41; d, K30 and K69; e, K74 and K80; f, K57 and K68.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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