Glycan Utilization Research Articles

Utilisation of Mucin Glycans by the Human Gut Symbiont Ruminococcus gnavus Is Strain-Dependent

Commensal bacteria often have an especially rich source of glycan-degrading enzymes which allow them to utilize undigested carbohydrates from the food or the host. The species Ruminococcus gnavus is present in the digestive tract of ≥90% of humans and has been implicated in gut-related diseases such as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Here we analysed the ability of two R. gnavus human strains, E1 and ATCC 29149, to utilize host glycans. We showed that although both strains could assimilate mucin monosaccharides, only R. gnavus ATCC 29149 was able to grow on mucin as a sole carbon source. Comparative genomic analysis of the two R. gnavus strains highlighted potential clusters and glycoside hydrolases (GHs) responsible for the breakdown and utilization of mucin-derived glycans. Transcriptomic and functional activity assays confirmed the importance of specific GH33 sialidase, and GH29 and GH95 fucosidases in the mucin utilisation pathway. Notably, we uncovered a novel pathway by which R. gnavus ATCC 29149 utilises sialic acid from sialylated substrates. Our results also demonstrated the ability of R. gnavus ATCC 29149 to produce propanol and propionate as the end products of metabolism when grown on mucin and fucosylated glycans. These new findings provide molecular insights into the strain-specificity of R. gnavus adaptation to the gut environment advancing our understanding of the role of gut commensals in health and disease.

Dynamic responses of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron during growth on glycan mixtures

Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (Bt) is a human colonic symbiont that degrades many different complex carbohydrates (glycans), the identities and amounts of which are likely to change frequently and abruptly from meal-to-meal. To understand how this organism reacts to dynamic growth conditions, we challenged it with a series of different glycan mixtures and measured responses involved in glycan catabolism. Our results demonstrate that individual Bt cells can simultaneously respond to multiple glycans and that responses to new glycans are extremely rapid. The presence of alternative carbohydrates does not alter response kinetics, but reduces expression of some glycan utilization genes as well as the cell's sensitivity to glycans that are present in lower concentration. Growth in a mixture containing 12 different glycans revealed that Bt preferentially uses some before others. This metabolic hierarchy is not changed by prior exposure to lower priority glycans because re-introducing high priority substrates late in culture re-initiates repression of genes involved in degrading those with lower priority. At least some carbohydrate prioritization effects occur at the level of monosaccharide recognition. Our results provide insight into how a bacterial glycan generalist modifies its responses in dynamic glycan environments and provide essential knowledge to interpret related metabolic behaviour in vivo.

The GM2 Glycan Serves as a Functional Coreceptor for Serotype 1 Reovirus

Viral attachment to target cells is the first step in infection and also serves as a determinant of tropism. Like many viruses, mammalian reoviruses bind with low affinity to cell-surface carbohydrate receptors to initiate the infectious process. Reoviruses disseminate with serotype-specific tropism in the host, which may be explained by differential glycan utilization. Although α2,3-linked sialylated oligosaccharides serve as carbohydrate receptors for type 3 reoviruses, neither a specific glycan bound by any reovirus serotype nor the function of glycan binding in type 1 reovirus infection was known. We have identified the oligosaccharide portion of ganglioside GM2 (the GM2 glycan) as a receptor for the attachment protein σ1 of reovirus strain type 1 Lang (T1L) using glycan array screening. The interaction of T1L σ1 with GM2 in solution was confirmed using NMR spectroscopy. We established that GM2 glycan engagement is required for optimal infection of mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) by T1L. Preincubation with GM2 specifically inhibited type 1 but not type 3 reovirus infection of MEFs. To provide a structural basis for these observations, we defined the mode of receptor recognition by determining the crystal structure of T1L σ1 in complex with the GM2 glycan. GM2 binds in a shallow groove in the globular head domain of T1L σ1. Both terminal sugar moieties of the GM2 glycan, N-acetylneuraminic acid and N-acetylgalactosamine, form contacts with the protein, providing an explanation for the observed specificity for GM2. Viruses with mutations in the glycan-binding domain display diminished hemagglutination capacity, a property dependent on glycan binding, and reduced capacity to infect MEFs. Our results define a novel mode of virus-glycan engagement and provide a mechanistic explanation for the serotype-dependent differences in glycan utilization by reovirus.

Editorial: Interdisciplinary, International, Inspiring!

Editorial: Interdisciplinary, International, Inspiring!

Structure of BT_3984, a member of the SusD/RagB family of nutrient-binding molecules.

The crystal structure of the Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron protein BT_3984 was determined to a resolution of 1.7 Å and was the first structure to be determined from the extensive SusD family of polysaccharide-binding proteins. SusD is an essential component of the sus operon that defines the paradigm for glycan utilization in dominant members of the human gut microbiota. Structural analysis of BT_3984 revealed an N-terminal region containing several tetratricopeptide repeats (TPRs), while the signature C-terminal region is less structured and contains extensive loop regions. Sequence and structure analysis of BT_3984 suggests the presence of binding interfaces for other proteins from the polysaccharide-utilization complex.

Towards the Efficient, Total Glycan Utilization of Biomass

From biomass to mass transportation: Waste biomass (newspaper, corn stover, straw, and wood) is converted into biofuel precursors and value-added products in excellent yield using a simple, inexpensive process involving concurrent hydrolysis, dehydration, and substitution reactions in a biphasic reactor. The hemicellulose fraction of these substrates is simultaneously converted into furfural, and together these constitute an efficient means for the total exploitation of the carbohydrate content of biomass.

Structure of a SusD homologue, BT1043, involved in mucin O-glycan utilization in a prominent human gut symbiont.

Mammalian distal gut bacteria have an expanded capacity to utilize glycans. In the absence of dietary sources, some species rely on host-derived mucosal glycans. The ability of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, a prominent human gut symbiont, to forage host glycans contributes to both its ability to persist within an individual host and its ability to be transmitted naturally to new hosts at birth. The molecular basis of host glycan recognition by this species is still unknown but likely occurs through an expanded suite of outermembrane glycan-binding proteins that are the primary interface between B. thetaiotaomicron and its environment. Presented here is the atomic structure of the B. thetaiotaomicron protein BT1043, an outer membrane lipoprotein involved in host glycan metabolism. Despite a lack of detectable amino acid sequence similarity, BT1043 is a structural homologue of the B. thetaiotaomicron starch-binding protein SusD. Both structures are dominated by tetratrico peptide repeats that may facilitate association with outer membrane beta-barrel transporters required for glycan uptake. The structure of BT1043 complexed with N-acetyllactosamine reveals that recognition is mediated via hydrogen bonding interactions with the reducing end of beta-N-acetylglucosamine, suggesting a role in binding glycans liberated from the mucin polypeptide. This is in contrast to CBM 32 family members that target the terminal nonreducing galactose residue of mucin glycans. The highly articulated glycan-binding pocket of BT1043 suggests that binding of ligands to BT1043 relies more upon interactions with the composite sugar residues than upon overall ligand conformation as previously observed for SusD. The diversity in amino acid sequence level likely reflects early divergence from a common ancestor, while the unique and conserved alpha-helical fold the SusD family suggests a similar function in glycan uptake.

Mucosal Glycan Foraging Enhances Fitness and Transmission of a Saccharolytic Human Gut Bacterial Symbiont

The distal human gut is a microbial bioreactor that digests complex carbohydrates. The strategies evolved by gut microbes to sense and process diverse glycans have important implications for the assembly and operation of this ecosystem. The human gut-derived bacterium Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron forages on both host and dietary glycans. Its ability to target these substrates resides in 88 polysaccharide utilization loci (PULs), encompassing 18% of its genome. Whole genome transcriptional profiling and genetic tests were used to define the mechanisms underlying host glycan foraging in vivo and in vitro. PULs that target all major classes of host glycans were identified. However, mucin O-glycans are the principal host substrate foraged in vivo. Simultaneous deletion of five genes encoding ECF-sigma transcription factors, which activate mucin O-glycan utilization, produces defects in bacterial persistence in the gut and in mother-to-offspring transmission. Thus, PUL-mediated glycan catabolism is an important component in gut colonization and may impact microbiota ecology.

Antigenic glycans in parasitic infections: implications for vaccines and diagnostics

Infections by parasitic protozoans and helminths are a major world-wide health concern, but no vaccines exist to the major human parasitic diseases, such as malaria, African trypanosomiasis, amebiasis, leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis, and lymphatic filariasis. Recent studies on a number of parasites indicate that immune responses to parasites in infected animals and humans are directed to glycan determinants within cell surface and secreted glycoconjugates and that glycoconjugates are important in host–parasite interactions. Because of the tremendous success achieved recently in generating carbohydrate–protein conjugate vaccines toward microbial infections, such as Haemophilus influenzae type b, there is renewed interest in defining parasite-derived glycans in the prospect of developing conjugate vaccines and new diagnostics for parasitic infections. Parasite-derived glycans are compelling vaccine targets because they have structural features that distinguish them from mammalian glycans. There have been exciting new developments in techniques for glycan analysis and the methods for synthesizing oligosaccharides by chemical or combined chemo-enzymatic approaches that now make it feasible to generate parasite glycans to test as vaccine candidates. Here, we highlight recent progress made in elucidating the immunogenicity of glycans from some of the major human and animal parasites, the potential for developing conjugate vaccines for parasitic infections, and the possible utilization of these novel glycans in diagnostics.

Antigenic glycans in parasitic infections: implications for vaccines and diagnostics

Infections by parasitic protozoans and helminths are a major world-wide health concern, but no vaccines exist to the major human parasitic diseases, such as malaria, African trypanosomiasis, amebiasis, leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis, and lymphatic filariasis. Recent studies on a number of parasites indicate that immune responses to parasites in infected animals and humans are directed to glycan determinants within cell surface and secreted glycoconjugates and that glycoconjugates are important in host–parasite interactions. Because of the tremendous success achieved recently in generating carbohydrate–protein conjugate vaccines toward microbial infections, such as Haemophilus influenzae type b, there is renewed interest in defining parasite-derived glycans in the prospect of developing conjugate vaccines and new diagnostics for parasitic infections. Parasite-derived glycans are compelling vaccine targets because they have structural features that distinguish them from mammalian glycans. There have been exciting new developments in techniques for glycan analysis and the methods for synthesizing oligosaccharides by chemical or combined chemo-enzymatic approaches that now make it feasible to generate parasite glycans to test as vaccine candidates. Here, we highlight recent progress made in elucidating the immunogenicity of glycans from some of the major human and animal parasites, the potential for developing conjugate vaccines for parasitic infections, and the possible utilization of these novel glycans in diagnostics.

Phosphatidylinositol glycan formation and utilization by the ciliate Tetrahymena mimbres

Ryals et al. (Ryals, P.E., Pak, Y., and Thompson, G. A., Jr., (1991) J. Biol. Chem. 266, 15048-15053) have described and partially characterized phosphatidylinositol glycans (PI glycans) present in Tetrahymena mimbres. We now describe the time course of PI glycan labeling from exogenous [3H]myristate, [14C]glucosamine, and [3H]ethanolamine. Over the first 2-12 h following pulse radioisotope addition a sizeable proportion of the radioactivity associated with the protein pellet remaining after cell delipidation existed as PI glycans. These compounds were distributed throughout the cell, with the largest proportion at 12 h being associated with a fraction containing mitochondria, lysosomes, and peroxisomes. However, by 24 h radioactivity had nearly disappeared from the PI glycans and had become associated with proteins by a process that was almost totally inhibited by cycloheximide or tunicamycin. PI glycans appeared to be incorporated mainly into a protein migrating on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in a relatively broad band with an apparent molecular mass of 24-29 kDa. The exact mobility of the protein band within this molecular weight range was dependent upon the growth temperature of the cells. The apparent molecular masses of the principal PI-anchored proteins formed by other closely related Tetrahymena species varied widely, ranging from 22 to 76 kDa. The PI-anchored proteins may belong to a group of surface proteins known as immobilization antigens. Treatment of 24-h-labeled T. mimbres cells with phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C in vivo released labeled proteins from the cells. Some labeled proteins were present even in the medium of control, non-phospholipase-treated cells. Tetrahymena PI glycans appear to accumulate in a metabolic pool from which they are gradually removed for attachment to externally oriented PI-anchored proteins. Tetrahymena is a versatile system well suited for studying the regulation of PI-anchored protein biochemistry.