title: The s-layer glycome-adding to the sugar coat of bacteria.
abstract: The amazing repertoire of glycoconjugates present on bacterial cell surfaces includes lipopolysaccharides, capsular polysaccharides, lipooligosaccharides, exopolysaccharides, and glycoproteins. While the former are constituents of Gram-negative cells, we review here the cell surface S-layer glycoproteins of Gram-positive bacteria. S-layer glycoproteins have the unique feature of self-assembling into 2D lattices providing a display matrix for glycans with periodicity at the nanometer scale. Typically, bacterial S-layer glycans are O-glycosidically linked to serine, threonine, or tyrosine residues, and they rely on a much wider variety of constituents, glycosidic linkage types, and structures than their eukaryotic counterparts. As the S-layer glycome of several bacteria is unravelling, a picture of how S-layer glycoproteins are biosynthesized is evolving. X-ray crystallography experiments allowed first insights into the catalysis mechanism of selected enzymes. In the future, it will be exciting to fully exploit the S-layer glycome for glycoengineering purposes and to link it to the bacterial interactome.
authors.affiliation: Department of NanoBiotechnology, Vienna Institute of BioTechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muthgasse 11, 1190 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ristl
authors.forename: Kerstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Steiner
authors.forename: Kristof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zarschler
authors.forename: Sonja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zayni
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Messner
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schäffer