title: Sugar Coating the Envelope: Glycoconjugates for Microbe-Host Crosstalk.
abstract: Tremendous progress has been made on mapping the mainly bacterial members of the human intestinal microbiota. Knowledge on what is out there, or rather what is inside, needs to be complemented with insight on how these bacteria interact with their biotic environment. Bacterial glycoconjugates, that is, the collection of all glycan-modified molecules, are ideal modulators of such interactions. Their enormous versatility and diversity results in a species-specific glycan barcode, providing a range of ligands for host interaction. Recent reports on the functional importance of glycosylation of important bacterial ligands in beneficial and pathogenic species underpin this. Glycoconjugates, and glycoproteins in particular, are an underappreciated, potentially crucial, factor in understanding bacteria-host interactions of old friends and foes.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University, 6708 WE Wageningen, The Netherlands; Institute of Microbiology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Hanne L P
authors.initials: HLP
authors.lastname: Tytgat
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Microbiology, Wageningen University, 6708 WE Wageningen, The Netherlands; Faculty of Medicine, Immunobiology Research Program, Department of Bacteriology and Immunology, University of Helsinki, 00290 Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: willem.devos@wur.nl.
authors.forename: Willem M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: de Vos
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D000069196:Gastrointestinal Microbiome / Q000502:physiology; D006001:Glycoconjugates / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000502:physiology; D006031:Glycosylation; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D056265:Microbial Interactions; D064307:Microbiota / Q000502:physiology*; D011134:Polysaccharides; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D006001:Glycoconjugates; D006023:Glycoproteins; D011134:Polysaccharides
keywords: glycobiology; glycoconjugates; glycoproteins; microbiota; microbiota–host interactions; pili