, 2005). Similar analysis has been performed on another model biofilm-producing strain, S. aureus MN8m (Vinogradov et al., 2006). There,

the EC-TA was found to be composed of phosphate, ribitol, glycerol, GlcNAc, and Ala. Likewise, for several clinical strains studied, the TA was always present in their extracellular biofilm matrix (Kogan et al., 2006; Sadovskaya et al., 2006). All these data confirmed that the EC-TA was an important and permanent component of the staphylococcal biofilm matrix. It could be suggested that, because, in a number selleck inhibitor of Gram-positive strains, part of the CW-TA is located in a ‘fluffy’-layer region beyond the cell wall (Neuhaus & Baddiley, 2003), some of the TA would be released from the cell surface into the extracellular space and thus becomes a part of the extracellular matrix (Kogan et al., 2006). Surprisingly, the chemical structures of the staphylococcal TAs, especially the pattern of d-Ala substitution – an important element for the pathogenecity of this

microorganism – have not been elucidated in detail. As a subsequent step of the investigation, we elucidated the chemical structures of the TAs of two model biofilm-producing strains –S. epidermidis RP62A and S. aureus MN8m. The chemical structure of CW-TAs of S. aureus and S. epidermidis is known thanks to the pioneer studies of Baddiley and colleagues in the 1960s and 1970s. These studies have shown that the TA of S. aureus was a (1,5)-linked poly(ribitol phosphate), substituted in position 4 of the ribitol residue with a β-GlcNAc (Fig. 1a; Baddiley et al., 1961, 1962a, b). The lipoteichoic acid

of S. aureus was a (1,3)-linked Smad inhibitor poly(glycerol phosphate), attached to the diacylglycerol lipid anchor via a diglucosyl (gentobiosyl) unit (Fig. 1b; Duckworth et al., 1975). The CW-TA of S. epidermidis I2 was also a (1,3)-linked poly(glycerol phosphate), containing β-Glc and d-Ala residues (Fig. 1c; Archibald et al., 1968). Later, Endl et al. (1983) analysed the composition Branched chain aminotransferase of the CW-TAs of several strains of S. aureus and CoNS; however, the detailed structures or the pattern of d-Ala substitution have not been studied. The structures of TAs of both model strains were elucidated using chemical methods, MS, and NMR spectroscopy. It was found that EC and CW TAs of S. epidermidis RP62A had the same structure of (1,3)-linked poly(glycerol phosphate), substituted at the 2-position of glycerol residues with α-Glc, α-GlcNAc, d-Ala, and most interestingly, α-Glc6Ala (Fig. 1d; Sadovskaya et al., 2004). Both EC and CW TAs from S. areus MN8M were composed of two different polymeric chains: a poly(ribitol phosphate) and poly(glycerol phosphate). In the poly(ribitol phosphate) chain, nearly 100% of ribitol was substituted with β-GlcNAc at position 4, and the structure corresponded to the one described in the literature for S. aureus H (Baddiley et al., 1961). Glycerol residues were (1,3)-linked.