The antigenicity and the structure of the major phenolic glycolipid from Mycobacterium kansasii have been established. A monoacetylated tetrasaccharide structure was proposed for the oligosaccharide moiety in which the distal sugar, unique in nature, corresponds to 2,6-dideoxy-4-O-methyl-alpha-arabinohexopyranose. Its terminal position in the oligosaccharide part confers to this residue a key role in the antigen-antibody interaction. By improvement of the methanolysis procedure, this new kind of sugar was obtained in higher amounts than by hydrolysis of the glycolipid. Its 1H-NMR spectrum is presented and its optical rotatory power measurement agrees with a D absolute configuration while the deoxyhexoses involved in the glycolipid tetrasaccharide structure present the L absolute configuration.
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Fournié et al. (1987) studied this question.