2. Academic Validation
  3. Metabolic labelling of the carbohydrate core in bacterial peptidoglycan and its applications

Metabolic labelling of the carbohydrate core in bacterial peptidoglycan and its applications

  • Nat Commun. 2017 Apr 20:8:15015. doi: 10.1038/ncomms15015.
Hai Liang 1,  Kristen E DeMeester 1,  Ching-Wen Hou 1,  Michelle A Parent 2 3,  Jeffrey L Caplan 3 4,  Catherine L Grimes 1 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Delaware, 134 Brown Lab, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA.
  • 2 Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA.
  • 3 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA.
  • 4 Bioimaging Center, Delaware Biotechnology Institute, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA.
PMID: 28425464 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15015
Abstract

Bacterial cells are surrounded by a polymer known as peptidoglycan (PG), which protects the cell from changes in osmotic pressure and small molecule insults. A component of this material, N-acetyl-muramic acid (NAM), serves as a core structural element for innate immune recognition of PG fragments. We report the synthesis of modifiable NAM carbohydrate derivatives and the installation of these building blocks into the backbone of Gram-positive and Gram-negative Bacterial PG utilizing metabolic cell wall recycling and biosynthetic machineries. Whole cells are labelled via Click Chemistry and visualized using super-resolution microscopy, revealing higher resolution PG structural details and allowing the cell wall biosynthesis, as well as its destruction in immune cells, to be tracked. This study will assist in the future identification of mechanisms that the immune system uses to recognize bacteria, glean information about fundamental cell wall architecture and aid in the design of novel Antibiotics.

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