title: Genetic, Biochemical, and Structural Analyses of Bacterial Surface Polysaccharides.
abstract: Surface polysaccharides are an often essential component of the outer surface of bacteria. They may serve to protect organisms from harsh environmental conditions and to increase virulence. The focus of this review will be to introduce polysaccharide biosynthesis and export from the cell, and the associated techniques used to determine these glycostructures. Protein interactions and proteomics will then be discussed while introducing systems biology approaches used to determine protein-protein and protein-polysaccharide interactions. The final section will address related screening methods used to study gene regulation in bacteria relating to polysaccharide gene clusters and their associated regulators. The goal of this review will be to highlight key studies that have increased our knowledge of glycobiology and discuss novel methods that examine this field at the cellular level using systems biology.
authors.affiliation: Agriculture and Food Laboratory, Laboratory Services, University of Guelph, 95 Stone Rd. W., Guelph, ON, N1H 8J7, Canada. colin.cooper@uoguelph.ca.
authors.forename: Colin A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Guelph, 95 Stone Road, Guelph, ON, N1H 8J7, Canada.
authors.forename: Iain L
authors.initials: IL
authors.lastname: Mainprize
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Guelph, 95 Stone Road, Guelph, ON, N1H 8J7, Canada.|Department of Infectious Diseases, Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, CA, 94080, USA.
authors.forename: Nicholas N
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Nickerson
mesh_terms: D016695:Glycosyltransferases; D011135:Polysaccharides, Bacterial / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA; D049490:Systems Biology; D020798:Two-Hybrid System Techniques
chemical_list: D011135:Polysaccharides, Bacterial; D016695:Glycosyltransferases
keywords: Capsule; Cell envelope; Glycobiology; Lipopolysaccharide; Polysaccharide