Genetic analysis of exopolysaccharide acetilation product by Burkholderia cepacia

Bacteria belonging to the Burkholderia cepacia complex are mainly isolated from the sputum of cystic fibrosis patients and frequently show a mucoid phenotype.Most of them produce an exopolysaccharide called cepacian, whose repeating unit consists of a branched heptasaccharide carrying from one to three acetyl esters. Two genetic loci, bceI and bceII, consisting of 11 and 9 genes respectively, are involved in cepacian biosynthesis.Three genes located in the bceII locus, named bceOSU, code for different acyltransferases. As the presence of acetyl groups influences the viscosity of cepacian, we compared three strains (two clinical isolates named BTS2 and BTS7, and the reference strain Burkholderia sp. 383) exhibiting differences both in the acetylation pattern and at the genomic level, for the presence of insertion sequences adjacent to bceU.