ArticlePLoS biology2021
The human gut symbiont Ruminococcus gnavus shows specificity to blood group A antigen during mucin glycan foraging: Implication for niche colonisation in the gastrointestinal tract.
Article in PLoS biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- The butyrate-producing Gram-positive human gut bacterium, Hoskinsella mucinilytica, selectively targets host mucin N-acetylhexosamines.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2026Article
- A genetic toolkit for the human gut bacterium Mediterraneibacter gnavus identifies capsular polysaccharides as a competitive colonization factor.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Intersections of ABO blood group, secretor status, and the gut microbiome: implications for disease susceptibility and therapeutics.Archives of microbiology · 2025Review
- Dysbiosis-associated gut bacteriumMicrobiology spectrum · 2025Article
- A Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron genetic locus encodes activities consistent with mucin O-glycoprotein processing and N-acetylgalactosamine metabolism.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Plasma proteins mediate the effects of the gut microbiota on the development of head and neck cancer: a two-sample and mediated Mendelian randomized study.Discover oncology · 2025Article
- Emerging tools and best practices for studying gut microbial community metabolism.Nature metabolism · 2024Review
- Comprehensive profile of the companion animal gut microbiome integrating reference-based and reference-free methods.The ISME journal · 2024Article
- ABO gene polymorphisms are associated with acute coronary syndrome and with plasma concentration of HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides.Biomolecules & biomedicine · 2023Article
- Intestinal mucus and their glycans: A habitat for thriving microbiota.Cell host & microbe · 2023Review
- Mucin utilization by gut microbiota: recent advances on characterization of key enzymes.Essays in biochemistry · 2023Review
- Ruminococcus gnavus: friend or foe for human health.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2023Review
- Article
- Microbiota-induced regulatory T cells associate withFrontiers in microbiology · 2023Article
- Human Gut Metagenomes Encode Diverse GH156 Sialidases.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2022Article
- Developmental stage variation in the gut microbiome of South China tigers.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Article
- The role of the mucin-glycan foragingGut microbesArticle
- Analysis of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry: An update for 2021-2022.Mass spectrometry reviewsReview
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Authors and funding
19 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
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Abstract
The human gut symbiont Ruminococcus gnavus displays strain-specific repertoires of glycoside hydrolases (GHs) contributing to its spatial location in the gut. Sequence similarity network analysis identified strain-specific differences in blood-group endo-β-1,4-galactosidase belonging to the GH98 family. We determined the substrate and linkage specificities of GH98 from R. gnavus ATCC 29149, RgGH98, against a range of defined oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates including mucin. We showed by HPAEC-PAD and LC-FD-MS/MS that RgGH98 is specific for blood group A tetrasaccharide type II (BgA II). Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and saturation transfer difference (STD) NMR confirmed RgGH98 affinity for blood group A over blood group B and H antigens. The molecular basis of RgGH98 strict specificity was further investigated using a combination of glycan microarrays, site-directed mutagenesis, and X-ray crystallography. The crystal structures of RgGH98 in complex with BgA trisaccharide (BgAtri) and of RgGH98 E411A with BgA II revealed a dedicated hydrogen network of residues, which were shown by site-directed mutagenesis to be critical to the recognition of the BgA epitope. We demonstrated experimentally that RgGH98 is part of an operon of 10 genes that is overexpresssed in vitro when R. gnavus ATCC 29149 is grown on mucin as sole carbon source as shown by RNAseq analysis and RT-qPCR confirmed RgGH98 expression on BgA II growth. Using MALDI-ToF MS, we showed that RgGH98 releases BgAtri from mucin and that pretreatment of mucin with RgGH98 confered R. gnavus E1 the ability to grow, by enabling the E1 strain to metabolise BgAtri and access the underlying mucin glycan chain. These data further support that the GH repertoire of R. gnavus strains enable them to colonise different nutritional niches in the human gut and has potential applications in diagnostic and therapeutics against infection.
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