Comparison of Components and Synthesis Genes of Cell Wall Teichoic Acid amongLactobacillus plantarumStrains

Abstract

The contents, components, and synthesis genes of cell wall teichoic acid (WTA) in 18 strains of Lactobacillus plantarum were compared. The WTA of each strain was classified by its components as being either the glycerol- or the ribitol-type. The different strains in the WTA type showed marked differences also in two gene regions, tagD1-tagF2 and lp_1816-tagB2, as for the presence or absence, nucleotide sequences, and transcriptional activities. Our results clearly showed that the tagD1-tagF2 and lp_1816-tagB2 regions contained the synthesis genes of the WTA backbone of L. plantarum. We verified that the genes in the tagD1-tagF2 region were involved in the synthesis of the glycerol-type backbone. Furthermore, we propose that the genes in the lp_1816-tagB2 region were tarI, tarJ, tarK, and tarL, which are involved in the synthesis of the ribitol-type backbone.

Physical and Immunobiological Studies of Teichoic Acids of Probiotic Lactobacilli Strains

“…Among lactobacilli, wall teichoic acids (WTA) ultrastructures of L. plantarum are the most studied. It is known that L. plantarum is the only lactobacilli species which can contain either polyribitolphosphate or polyglycerophosphate in its WTA [15,17]. Our data showed the presence of polyglycerophosphate in WTA of the tested strains.…”

“…The glycosyl residues of teichoic acids are commonly represented by multiple glucose residues in a range of configurations [15], but usually no more 1 or 2 kinds per molecule [5,6,11]. However our study revealed the presence of unusually high number of sugar units (up to 9).…”

“…Glycerol residues were identified by signals in the characteristic areas (chemical shifts corresponding to 1,3polyglycerol phosphate links -61. 15 (Fig. 2 A, B.).…”

Characterization of the transcriptional regulation of the tarIJKL locus involved in ribitol-containing wall teichoic acid biosynthesis in Lactobacillus plantarum

“…Lactobacillus fermentum, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus reuteri and Lactobacillus rhamnosus (Kleerebezem et al, 2010;Bron et al, 2012b). Intriguingly, Lactobacillus plantarum appears to be unique in its capacity to produce either Gro-or Rbocontaining WTA in the cell wall (Tomita et al, 2010). Previous WTA studies in different Lb.…”

“…The Gro-or Rbo-WTA production in Lb. plantarum depends on two distinct genetic clusters harbouring tag or tar genes (Tomita et al, 2010). The cluster encoding tagD1-tagF1-tagF2 (the tag locus) is only present in Gro-WTA-producing strains and absent in the Rbo-WTA-producing strains, and determines the Gro-WTA phenotype.…”