ReviewMicrobiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR2004
Diversity of microbial sialic acid metabolism.
Review in Microbiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR, 2004. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 289 papers.
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Who cites it
289 citing papers in PubMed, 585 citations in OpenAlex.
- Review
- Defined O-acetylated Neu5Ac substrates reveal position-specific preferences of gut bacterial sialidases.Glycobiology · 2026Article
- Analytical Ultracentrifugation in Aotearoa: A Brief History of the Technique and its Place Among Other Tools Used to Investigate Biomolecular Interactions.Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand · 2026Review
- Structural studies and functional engineering of NanX: an anhydro-sialic acid transporter from Escherichia coli.FEBS open bio · 2026Article
- Metabolomic profiling in IgA nephropathy: urinary and salivary biomarker insights.BMC nephrology · 2026Article
- Cellular homeostasis of N-acetylneuraminic acid and non-canonical sialic acids is mediated by human N-acetylneuraminate lyase.Glycobiology · 2026Article
- Expanding salivary biomarker detection by creating a synthetic neuraminic acid sensor via chimeragenesis.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- A bidirectionalbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Time-resolved growth of diverse human-associatedMicrobiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Phenogenomics reveals the ecology and evolution of Trichoderma fungi for sustainable agriculture.Nature microbiology · 2026Article
- Identification of Sialidase-Producing Bacteria in the Tsetse Gut and Characterisation of a Paenibacillus Sialidase: A Potential Tool for Paratransgenic Control of African Trypanosomes.Research square · 2026Article
- Bacterial exo-α-sialidases subvert the complement system through desialylation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Elucidation of the Roles of CD22 Cis-Ligands in B Lymphocyte Development and Signaling Using Genetic and Chemical Tools.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Obtaining Muramic Acid fromLife (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The grand escape - how pathogens outsmart the human complement system.Immunobiology · 2025Review
- Microbial Production ofFoods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Discovery and characterization of vertebrate sialoglycan-binding proteins.Seminars in immunology · 2025Review
- Loss of sialic acid side-chainProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Neuraminidase-3 activity in toddlers negatively impacts the linear growth status in Bangladeshi children.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Unveiling diversity and adaptations of the wild tomato Microbiome in their center of origin in the Ecuadorian Andes.Scientific reports · 2025Article
229 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Sialic acids are structurally unique nine-carbon keto sugars occupying the interface between the host and commensal or pathogenic microorganisms. An important function of host sialic acid is to regulate innate immunity, and microbes have evolved various strategies for subverting this process by decorating their surfaces with sialylated oligosaccharides that mimic those of the host. These subversive strategies include a de novo synthetic pathway and at least two truncated pathways that depend on scavenging host-derived intermediates. A fourth strategy involves modification of sialidases so that instead of transferring sialic acid to water (hydrolysis), a second active site is created for binding alternative acceptors. Sialic acids also are excellent sources of carbon, nitrogen, energy, and precursors of cell wall biosynthesis. The catabolic strategies for exploiting host sialic acids as nutritional sources are as diverse as the biosynthetic mechanisms, including examples of horizontal gene transfer and multiple transport systems. Finally, as compounds coating the surfaces of virtually every vertebrate cell, sialic acids provide information about the host environment that, at least in Escherichia coli, is interpreted by the global regulator encoded by nanR. In addition to regulating the catabolism of sialic acids through the nan operon, NanR controls at least two other operons of unknown function and appears to participate in the regulation of type 1 fimbrial phase variation. Sialic acid is, therefore, a host molecule to be copied (molecular mimicry), eaten (nutrition), and interpreted (cell signaling) by diverse metabolic machinery in all major groups of mammalian pathogens and commensals.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.