@article{mbs:/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.023747-0, author = "Bhagwat, Arvind A. and Jun, Won and Liu, Liu and Kannan, Porteen and Dharne, Mahesh and Pheh, Benedict and Tall, Ben D. and Kothary, Mahendra H. and Gross, Kenneth C. and Angle, Scott and Meng, Jianghong and Smith, Allen", title = "Osmoregulated periplasmic glucans of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium are required for optimal virulence in mice", journal= "Microbiology", year = "2009", volume = "155", number = "1", pages = "229-237", doi = "https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.023747-0", url = "https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.023747-0", publisher = "Microbiology Society", issn = "1465-2080", type = "Journal Article", keywords = "OPG, osmoregulated periplasmic glucan", abstract = "We purified osmoregulated periplasmic glucans (OPGs) from Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and found them to be composed of 100 % glucose with 2-linked glucose as the most abundant residue, with terminal glucose, 2,3-linked and 2,6-linked glucose also present in high quantities. The two structural genes for OPG biosynthesis, opgG and opgH, form a bicistronic operon, and insertion of a kanamycin resistance gene cassette into this operon resulted in a strain devoid of OPGs. The opgGH mutant strain was impaired in motility and growth under low osmolarity conditions. The opgGH mutation also resulted in a 2 log increase in the LD50 in mice compared to the wild-type strain SL1344. Inability to synthesize OPGs had no significant impact on the organism's lipopolysaccharide pattern or its ability to survive antimicrobial peptides-, detergent-, pH- and nutrient-stress conditions. We observed that the opgGH-defective strain respired at a reduced rate under acidic growth conditions (pH 5.0) and had lower ATP levels compared to the wild-type strain. These data indicate that OPGs of S. Typhimurium contribute towards mouse virulence as well as growth and motility under low osmolarity growth conditions.", }