Chemical biology tools to probe bacterial glycans.

Curr Opin Chem Biol

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Bowdoin College, 6600 College Station, Brunswick, ME 04011, USA. Electronic address:

Published: June 2024

Bacterial cells are covered by a complex carbohydrate coat of armor that allows bacteria to thrive in a range of environments. As a testament to the importance of bacterial glycans, effective and heavily utilized antibiotics including penicillin and vancomycin target and disrupt the bacterial glycocalyx. Despite their importance, the study of bacterial glycans lags far behind their eukaryotic counterparts. Bacterial cells use a large palette of monosaccharides to craft glycans, leading to molecules that are significantly more complex than eukaryotic glycans and that are refractory to study. Fortunately, chemical tools designed to probe bacterial glycans have yielded insights into these molecules, their structures, their biosynthesis, and their functions.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11164641PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpa.2024.102453DOI Listing

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