Marine microorganisms have evolved for millions of years to survive in the environments characterized by one or more extreme physical or chemical parameters, e.g., high pressure, low temperature or high salinity. Marine bacteria have the ability to produce a range of biologically active molecules, such as antibiotics, toxins and antitoxins, antitumor and antimicrobial agents, and as a result, they have been a topic of research interest for many years. Among these biologically active molecules, the carbohydrate antigens, lipopolysaccharides (LPSs, O-antigens) found in cell walls of gram-negative marine bacteria, show great potential as candidates in the development of drugs to prevent septic shock due to their low virulence. The structural diversity of LPSs is thought to be a reflection of the ability for these bacteria to adapt to an array of habitats, protecting the cell from being compromised by exposure to harsh environmental stress factors. Over the last few years, the variety of structures of core oligosaccharides and O-specific polysaccharides from LPSs of marine microrganisms has been discovered. In this review, we discuss the most recently encountered structures that have been identified from bacteria belonging to the genera Aeromonas, Alteromonas, Idiomarina, Microbulbifer, Pseudoalteromonas, Plesiomonas and Shewanella of the Gammaproteobacteria phylum; Sulfitobacter and Loktanella of the Alphaproteobactera phylum and to the genera Arenibacter, Cellulophaga, Chryseobacterium, Flavobacterium, Flexibacter of the Cytophaga-Flavobacterium-Bacteroides phylum. Particular attention is paid to the particular chemical features of the LPSs, such as the monosaccharide type, non-sugar substituents and phosphate groups, together with some of the typifying traits of LPSs obtained from marine bacteria. A possible correlation is then made between such features and the environmental adaptations undertaken by marine bacteria.
Keywords: O-specific polysaccharides; carbohydrate antigens; marine microorganisms.