Methylation analysis of the core oligosaccharide of the Proteus mirahilis mutant R4 (derived from serotype 028 was carried out in order to obtain information on the internal (glucose-heptose) region of the P. mirahilis R core.The isolated core oligosaccharide was composed of glucose, L-glycero-D-manno-heptose, 3-deoxy-D-munno-octulosonic acid (dOclA) and phosphorus in a molar ratio of about 1 : 2 : 1 : 1.4. It was methylated either directly or after dephosphorylation. To localize the position of the phosphate substituents, the permethylated product was dephosphorylated with hydrogen fluoride and the oligosaccharide obtained was remethylated using CZH31. Location of phosphate at C-7 of the terminal heptose was shown by isolation of the sugar phosphate from partial hydrolysates and gasliquid chromatography/mass spectrometry of the permethylated product.Combining the data of the methylation analysis with the data of an NMR study allows one to formulate the structure of the core oligosaccharide as follows :DGlcp(fll+3/4)~cc~Hepp(l + ?)dOclA 0-specific chains of enterobacterial lipopolysaccharides vary highly in composition and structure amongst the various serotypes [l]. In contrast, the R core region of Enterobacteriaceae lipopolysaccharides is of rather limited variability, e.g. all Salmonella serotypes seem to share the same R core and in Eschericliia coli, Skigella and Citrobacter five different R core types have been encountered so far [2 -71, which, however, resemble each other and the Salmonella core in composition and structure. Some of these types are identical for several genera of the Enterobacteriaceae family [8]. The differences refer to the external core regions, while the internal region (heptose/dOclA region) seem to be identical. This can be deduced by the sensitivity of deep R mutants from different genera versus a whole range of R-specific phages like FP1, FP3, C21 and $X 174 [5,9]. All hitherto investigated R mutants of P. mirahilis are resistant to the action of the following (R) phages: Felix 01, 6SR, Br2, BrlO, Ffm, Fpl, Fp3 and P22, indicating that differences exist in the phage-receptor region of P. mirahilis R mutants and those of other enterobacterial genera like Salmonella and Esclzerichiu [lo].From P. miruhilis 028 (strain F87) an R mutant was isolated and designated as R4 mutant [10,13]. Its lipopolysaccharide contains only D-glucose, ~-g l y crro-r>-manno-heptose and dOclA, in addition to lipid A.