ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2008
Role of glycan synthesis in colonization of the mammalian gut by the bacterial symbiont Bacteroides fragilis.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 65 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
65 citing papers in PubMed, 109 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Gene regulation inMicrobiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2025Review
- Commensal bacterial glycosylation at the interface of host-bacteria interactions.Gut microbes · 2025Review
- Human gut bacteria produce structurally related monoglycolipids with contrasting immune functions.Nature microbiology · 2025Article
- Role of phase-variable Mfa1 fimbriae ofGut microbes reports · 2025Article
- Deep learning revealed the distribution and evolution patterns for invertible promoters across bacterial lineages.Nucleic acids research · 2024Article
- Article
- The impact of exercise on the gut microbiota in middle-aged amateur serious runners: a comparative study.Frontiers in physiology · 2024Article
- The role of the glycome in symbiotic host-microbe interactions.Glycobiology · 2023Review
- Dynamic genetic adaptation of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron during murine gut colonization.Cell reports · 2023Article
- Anti-Obesity Potential through Regulation of Carbohydrate Uptake and Gene Expression in Intestinal Epithelial Cells by the ProbioticJournal of microbiology and biotechnology · 2023Article
- Fitness advantage ofeLife · 2023Article
- Exploring Bacterial Attributes That Underpin Symbiont Life in the Monogastric Gut.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2022Review
- The early life microbiota mediates maternal effects on offspring growth in a nonhuman primate.iScience · 2022Article
- Chemical Reporters for Bacterial Glycans: Development and Applications.Chemical reviews · 2022Review
- A mucin-responsive hybrid two-component system controls Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron colonization and gut homeostasis.Journal of microbiology (Seoul, Korea) · 2022Article
5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Bacteroides species are the most abundant Gram-negative bacteria of the human colonic microbiota. These endogenous organisms are unique in that they synthesize an extensive number of phase-variable surface polysaccharides. Pathogenic bacteria phase vary expression of surface molecules for immune evasion, but the importance of the synthesis of multiple phase-variable polysaccharides to these commensal bacteria is unknown. We previously showed that a Bacteroides fragilis mutant unable to synthesize 4 of the 8 capsular polysaccharides and unable to glycosylate proteins properly is rapidly outcompeted by the wild-type strain for colonization of the gnotobiotic mouse intestine. In the present study, we constructed mutants defective only in capsule polysaccharide synthesis to define better the importance of these surface molecules to intestinal colonization. We discovered a key enzymatic activity required for synthesis of 7 of the 8 capsular polysaccharides. Deletion of its gene resulted in the first B. fragilis mutant able to synthesize only one phase-variable polysaccharide, and further mutation resulted in a stable acapsular mutant. We show that the acapsular mutant is rapidly outcompeted, but synthesis of a single polysaccharide is sufficient for the organism to colonize the gnotobiotic intestine competitively. These data demonstrate that initial colonization of the gnotobiotic mouse intestine by B. fragilis requires that the organism synthesize only a single polysaccharide and suggest that the synthesis of multiple phase-variable polysaccharides is important for the bacteria's long-term maintenance in the normally complex and competitive ecosystem.
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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.