Capsular Polysaccharide Diversity in Acinetobacter Baumannii
Summary
Acinetobacter baumannii is a formidable opportunistic pathogen responsible for severe hospital-acquired infections worldwide. A central virulence determinant of this organism is its capsular polysaccharide (CPS), a densely packed layer of repeating sugar units that envelops the bacterial cell, shielding it from desiccation, disinfectants and host immune defences. Genetic variation in the CPS biosynthesis locus (K locus) gives rise to more than 100 distinct capsule types, each defined by unique combinations of sugar precursors and linkage patterns. This structural diversity impacts bacterial survival, antibiotic tolerance, immune evasion and susceptibility to bacteriophages. Variations arise through horizontal gene transfer, recombination and site-specific replacements at the K locus, often mediated by glycosyltransferases and polymerases that assemble and link repeat units. Global surveillance has revealed frequent within-clone capsule switching, underlining the adaptability of A. baumannii and complicating efforts to develop broadly protective vaccines or phage therapies. Understanding the full spectrum of capsule diversity is therefore crucial for epidemiological tracking, rational design of antimicrobial agents and development of targeted immunotherapies.
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Capsular Polysaccharide Diversity in Acinetobacter Baumannii publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in capsular polysaccharide diversity in acinetobacter baumannii across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Capsular polysaccharide (CPS): A surface-associated polymer of repeating sugar units forming a protective capsule around bacterial cells.
K locus: The genomic region encoding enzymes for CPS precursor synthesis, glycosyltransferases, polymerases and export machinery.
Glycosyltransferase: An enzyme that transfers specific sugar moieties to growing polysaccharide chains, determining monomer composition and linkage.
Wzy polymerase: An enzyme that catalyses the polymerisation and linkage of repeat units in capsular polysaccharide assembly.
References
- The Acinetobacter baumannii K239 capsular polysaccharide includes heptasaccharide units that are structurally related to K86 but joined by different linkages formed by different Wzy polymerases. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules (2024).
- Genome-wide phage susceptibility analysis in Acinetobacter baumannii reveals capsule modulation strategies that determine phage infectivity. PLOS Pathogens (2023).
- Identification of Acinetobacter baumannii loci for capsular polysaccharide (KL) and lipooligosaccharide outer core (OCL) synthesis in genome assemblies using curated reference databases compatible with Kaptive. Microbial Genomics (2020).
- Diversity and Function of Capsular Polysaccharide in Acinetobacter baumannii. Frontiers in Microbiology (2019).
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