Due to the rise of bacterial antibiotic resistance, biological and chemical alternatives to antibiotics must be explored in order to effectively combat bacterial infections in the future. Bacterial glycoproteins are intriguing possible targets of new antibiotics because they contain unique glycan structures that are absent from humans, and they are often linked to virulence. Metabolic oligosaccharide engineering (MOE) is a chemical approach that has facilitated the discovery and targeting of glycoproteins in the bacterial pathogen Helicobacter pylori. Here, we set out to address whether this approach can be applied more broadly to study and target glycoproteins in a range of bacterial species. For our studies, we performed metabolic glycan labeling experiments in Bacteroides fragilis, Campylobacter jejuni, and Burkholderia thailandensis. Briefly, bacteria were grown in media supplemented with peracetylated N-azidoacetylgluocosamine, then lysed and analyzed for the presence of azide-labeled glycoproteins using Staudinger ligation. Our initial data indicate that glycoproteins in these organisms can be labeled and studied via MOE, thus opening the door to identifying these biomolecules, studying their role in colonizing the human host, and creating antibiotics that target them.

Investigation of the efficacy of metabolic oligosaccharide engineering in different bacterial species

247th National Meeting (2014)

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