How to build a virulence factor: the role of three novel enzymes in the biosynthesis of the Group A Carbohydrate

The Group A carbohydrate (GAC), a bacterial surface polysaccharide, is an essential virulence factor of Streptococcus pyogenes required for growth and infection of humans.In terms of its chemical composition, this peptidoglycan-anchored polymer is mainly formed by a string of rhamnose sugars, with alternated modifications of N-acetylglucosamine and glycerolphosphate. The rhamnose polysaccharide (RhaPS) that forms the backbone chain is synthesised intracellularly by the sequential action of three rhamnosyltransferases named GacB, GacC and GacG. Importantly, deletion of any of these rhamnosyltransferases causes bacterialdeath.

In this work, we used an interdisciplinary approach to demonstrate that: 1) GacB is a novel enzyme that initiates the RhaPS biosynthesis; 2) GacC catalyses the formation of a unique stem; 3) GacG elongates the RhaPS string by adding a yet unknown number of rhamnoses. Here, we also show that homologs from different streptococcal species can substitute GacB and GacC in the RhaPS production. In particular, we demonstrate that several human pathogens from the Streptococcus genus encompassed in the Lancefield serotyping scheme, and the dental pathogen Streptococcus mutans can replace S. pyogenes’ enzymes. In contrast, the homologs from S. pneumoniae sp. D39 did not, suggesting a different structural arrangement for its surface carbohydrate. Our results highlight the importance of the group carbohydrate biosynthesis pathways in the Streptococcus genus and open the door for the future development of multi-target compounds that could inhibit these enzymes in Streptococcus pyogenes and other pathogenic streptococci of clinical and veterinary importance.