TY - JOUR T1 - "Just a spoonful of sugar...": import of sialic acid across bacterial cell membranes. JF - Biophys Rev Y1 - 2018 A1 - North, Rachel A A1 - Horne, Christopher R A1 - Davies, James S A1 - Remus, Daniela M A1 - Muscroft-Taylor, Andrew C A1 - Goyal, Parveen A1 - Wahlgren, Weixiao Yuan A1 - Ramaswamy, S A1 - Friemann, Rosmarie A1 - Dobson, Renwick C J AB -

Eukaryotic cell surfaces are decorated with a complex array of glycoconjugates that are usually capped with sialic acids, a large family of over 50 structurally distinct nine-carbon amino sugars, the most common member of which is N-acetylneuraminic acid. Once made available through the action of neuraminidases, bacterial pathogens and commensals utilise host-derived sialic acid by degrading it for energy or repurposing the sialic acid onto their own cell surface to camouflage the bacterium from the immune system. A functional sialic acid transporter has been shown to be essential for the uptake of sialic acid in a range of human bacterial pathogens and important for host colonisation and persistence. Here, we review the state-of-play in the field with respect to the molecular mechanisms by which these bio-nanomachines transport sialic acids across bacterial cell membranes.

VL - 10 IS - 2 ER -