Immunochemical Relationships of Certain Capsular Polysaccharides of Klebsiella, Pneumococci and Rhizobia

[摘要] Pyruvic acid is an immunologic determinant in the capsular polysaccharides of Klebsiella K32, pneumococcal types IV and XXVII, and eight strains of Rhizobia. All of these react heavily in anti-Pn XXVII. A cross-reaction between Pn IV and Pn XXVII is described and shown not to be due to pyruvic acid. Klebsiella K9 is characterized by non-reducing end-groups of D-glucuronic acid (or of 4-O-methyl-d-glucuronic acid) but differs in other respects from K2. Cross-reactions of K47 show it to be the only one of those tested with non-reducing end-groups of l-rhamnose. K52 reacts heavily in anti-Pn XXVIII. When depyruvylated, the rhizobial polysaccharides show much greater reactivity, and, occasionally, different reactivities in anti-Pn sera other than XXVII, in which depyruvylation virtually abolishes precipitation. The rhizobial polysaccharides may contain their pyruvic acid linked as a ketal to d-galactose; the linkage in S IV is more labile.

[学科分类] 生物科学（综合）