Structure determination of Streptococcus suis serotypes 7 and 8 capsular polysaccharides and assignment of functions of the cps locus genes involved in their biosynthesis.

Streptococcus suis serotypes 7 and 8 are counted among the top six S. suis serotypes causing clinical disease in pigs. Yet, limited information is available on these serotypes. Since S. suis serotyping system is based upon capsular polysaccharide (CPS) antigenicity and the CPS is considered a major virulence factor for encapsulated pathogens, here we determined for the first time the chemical compositions and structures of serotypes 7 and 8 CPSs. Chemical and spectroscopic data gave the following repeating unit sequences: [3)L-Rha(α1-P-2)D-Gal(α1-4)D-GlcA(β1-3)D-FucNAc4N(α1-]n for serotype 7 and [2)L-Rha(α1-P-4)D-ManNAc(β1-4)D-Glc(α1-]n for serotype 8. As serotype 8 CPS is identical to Streptococcus pneumoniae type 19F CPS, dot-blot analyses showed a strong reaction of the 19F polysaccharide with reference anti-S. suis serotype 8 rabbit serum. A correlation between S. suis serotypes 7 and 8 sequences and genes of those serotypes' loci encoding putative glycosyltransferases and polymerases responsible for the biosynthesis of the repeating units was tentatively established. Knowledge of CPS structure and composition will contribute to better dissect the role of this bacterial component in the pathogenesis of the disease caused by S. suis serotypes 7 and 8.