{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,28]],"date-time":"2026-07-28T09:47:00Z","timestamp":1785232020036,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,27]],"date-time":"2021-04-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1619481600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Swiss National Science Foundation","award":["197083"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["197083"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The structure of the exopolysaccharide capsule of Streptococcus pneumoniae is defined by the genetic arrangement of the capsule operon allowing the unequivocal identification of the pneumococcal serotype. Here, we investigated the environment-dependent composition of the polysaccharide structure of S. pneumoniae serotype 6F. When grown in a chemically defined medium (CDM) with glucose versus galactose, the exopolysaccharide capsule of the serotype 6F strains reveals a ratio of 1\/0.6 or 1\/0.3 for galactose\/glucose in the capsule by 1H-NMR analyses, respectively. Increased production of the capsule precursor UDP-glucose has been identified by 31P-NMR in CDM with glucose. Flow cytometric experiments using monoclonal antibodies showed decreased labelling of Hyp6AG4 (specific for serotype 6A) antibodies when 6F is grown in glucose as compared to galactose, which mirrors the 1H-NMR results. Whole-genome sequencing analyses of serotype 6F isolates suggested that the isolates evolved during two different events from serotype 6A during the time when the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-13) was introduced. In conclusion, this study shows differences in the capsular structure of serotype 6F strains using glucose as compared to galactose as the carbon source. Therefore, 6F strains may show slightly different polysaccharide composition while colonizing the human nasopharynx (galactose rich) as compared to invasive locations such as the blood (glucose rich).<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms22094580","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,27]],"date-time":"2021-04-27T21:18:20Z","timestamp":1619558300000},"page":"4580","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":15,"title":["Carbon Source-Dependent Changes of the Structure of Streptococcus pneumoniae Capsular Polysaccharide with Serotype 6F"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4822-130X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Joel P.","family":"Werren","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Infectious Diseases, University of Bern, 3001 Bern, Switzerland"},{"name":"Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Bern, 3001 Bern, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lukas J.","family":"Troxler","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Infectious Diseases, University of Bern, 3001 Bern, Switzerland"},{"name":"Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Bern, 3001 Bern, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Oluwaseun Rume-Abiola","family":"Oyewole","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Infectious Diseases, University of Bern, 3001 Bern, Switzerland"},{"name":"Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Bern, 3001 Bern, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3437-4639","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alban","family":"Ramette","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Infectious Diseases, University of Bern, 3001 Bern, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9492-9088","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Silvio D.","family":"Brugger","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiology, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"R\u00e9my","family":"Bruggmann","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Interfaculty Bioinformatics Unit and Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, University of Bern, 3001 Bern, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mark","family":"van der Linden","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"German National Reference Centre for Streptococci, Department of Medical Microbiology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, 52074 Aachen, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Moon H.","family":"Nahm","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ilche","family":"Gjuroski","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bern, 3001 Bern, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Carlo","family":"Casanova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Infectious Diseases, University of Bern, 3001 Bern, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2096-0618","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Julien","family":"Furrer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Bern, 3001 Bern, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2418-6474","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Markus","family":"Hilty","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Infectious Diseases, University of Bern, 3001 Bern, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"S338","DOI":"10.1086\/513841","article-title":"The Pneumococcus at the Millennium: Not Down, Not Out","volume":"179","author":"Austrian","year":"1999","journal-title":"J. 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