Streptococcus agalactiae (group B Streptococcus, GBS) is a gram-positive bacterium that is an asymptomatic colonizer commonly found in the gastrointestinal and genitourinary tract of healthy adults. GBS is also the most common cause of life-threatening bacterial infections in newborns and is emerging as a pathogen in immunocompromised and diabetic adults. The GBS cell wall and covalently linked capsular polysaccharides (CPS) are vital to the protection of the bacterial cell and act as virulence factors. GBS-CPS have been successfully used to produce conjugate vaccines for all currently identified GBS serotypes. However, the mechanisms of biosynthesis and assembly of CPS and the other cell wall components remain poorly defined due to their complex surface structures. In this biosynthetic study of the GBS cell wall-CPS complex, glycolipids with varying lengths of glycosyl-chains were discovered. Among those, one of the smallest glycolipids (named GBS Lipid-α) was structurally characterized. Lipid-α is involved in GBS saccharide metabolism and presumably acts as a glycosyl acceptor to elongate the glycosyl chain. GBS Lipid-α was determined to be a 3-monosaccharide 1,2 acyl glycerol with a molecular mass in the range of m/z = 724-808. GBS Lipid-α is highly heterogenic with various acyl groups and glycosyl moieties. This knowledge will pave the way for future studies to elucidate the entire metabolic pathway and genes involved. The Lipid-α pathway may also exist in other bacterial species and has the potential to be a biomarker for future drug development.
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