The first step in the colonization of the human urinary tract by pathogenic Escherichia coli is the mannose-sensitive binding of FimH, the adhesin present at the tip of type 1 pili, to the bladder epithelium. We elucidated crystallographically the interactions of FimH with D-mannose. The unique site binding pocket occupied by D-mannose was probed using site-directed mutagenesis. All but one of ...

The sugar binding specificity of the recently described mannose-specific carbohydrate-binding proteins (CBP) isolated to homogeneity from both the epimastigote and trypomastigote stages of the pathogenic protozoa Trypanosoma cruzi has been studied by quantitative hapten inhibition of the biotinylated CBPs to immobilized thyroglobulin using model oligosaccharides. The results clearly show a diff...

Carbohydrate arrays fabricated on gold films were used to study carbohydrate-protein interactions with surface plasmon resonance (SPR) imaging. An immobilization scheme consisting of the formation of a surface disulfide bond was used to attach thiol-modified carbohydrates onto gold films and to fabricate carbohydrate arrays. The carbohydrate attachment steps were characterized using polarizatio...

Abstract We report a novel glycan array architecture that binds the mannose‐specific binding protein, concanavalin A (ConA), with sub‐femtomolar avidity. new radical photopolymerization developed specifically for this application combines grafted‐from thiol–(meth)acrylate polymerization thiol–ene chemistry to graft glycans growing polymer brushes. The propagation of brushes was studied by carry...

The coronary endothelial luminal membrane (CELM) glycocalyx has diverse molecules involved in blood flow signal transduction. Evidence suggests that some of these structures may be lectinic. To test this, we synthesized two monosaccharide polymers (Mon-Pols) made of Mannose (Man-Pol) or Galactose (Gal-Pol) covalently coupled to Dextran (70 kDa) and used them as lectin affinity probes. In situ i...

One of the important parts of innate immunity is complement system that occurs in three different ways; the classic, the alternative and the lectin pathway. The four pattern recognition molecules that have been identified till now are Mannose binding lectin (MBL), a component of lectin pathway, and three ficolins (ficolin1,-2 and -3) which compound to the carbohydrates of the cell surface. MBL ...

By transposon mutagenesis, we have isolated a mutant of Sinorhizobium meliloti which is totally unable to grow on fructose as sole carbon source as a consequence of its inability to transport this sugar. The cloning and sequencing analysis of the chromosomal DNA region flanking the TnphoA insertion revealed the presence of six open reading frames (ORFs) organized in two loci, frcRS and frcBCAK,...

Diabetic complications include infection and cardiovascular disease. Within the immune system, host-pathogen and regulatory host-host interactions operate through binding of oligosaccharides by C-type lectin. A number of C-type lectins recognise oligosaccharides rich in mannose and fucose - sugars with similar structures to glucose. This raises the possibility that high glucose conditions in di...