Lipopolysaccharide is an essential component of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria and consists of three elements: lipid A, the core oligosaccharide and the O-antigen. The inner core region is highly conserved and contains at least one residue of 3-deoxy-D-manno-octulosonate (Kdo). The first committed step of Kdo biosynthesis is the aldol-keto isomerisation of D-ribulose 5-phosphate to D-arabinose 5-phosphate catalyzed by arabinose 5-phosphate isomerase encoded in Escherichia coli by the kdsD gene. KdsD contains an N-terminal sugar isomerase (SIS) domain commonly found in phosphosugar isomerases but its three-dimensional structure is unknown. The structure of the KdsD SIS domain has been predicted by homology modeling using the hypothetical 3etn protein as a template. Moreover by sequence alignments, comparison with other sugar isomerases structurally related to KdsD, and site-directed mutagenesis we implicated four residues in KdsD activity or substrate recognition. A possible role of these residues in the catalysis is discussed. (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.