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Analyzing the dynamic bacterial glycome with a lectin microarray approach.

Hsu KL, Pilobello KT, Mahal LK

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology, Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station, A5300, Austin, Texas 78712-0265, USA.

Glycosylation of bacterial cell surfaces is emerging as a critical factor in symbiosis, pathogenesis, cell-cell interactions and immune evasion. The lack of high-throughput analytical tools to examine bacterial glycans has been a major obstacle to the field and has hindered closer examination of the dynamics of carbohydrate variation. We have recently developed a lectin microarray for the analysis of glycoproteins. Herein we present a rapid analytical system based on this technology for the examination of bacterial glycans. The glycosylation pattern observed distinguishes closely related Escherichia coli strains from one another, providing a facile means of fingerprinting bacteria. In addition, dynamic alterations in the carbohydrate coat of a pathogenic E. coli strain are readily observed. The fast evaluation of real-time alterations in surface-carbohydrate epitopes allows examination of the dynamic role of bacterial sugars in response to external stimuli such as the immune system.

Published 17 February 2006 in Nat Chem Biol, 2(3): 153-7.
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