Methods for the structural modification and characterization of bacterial glycans

Despite the importance of carbohydrates in cellular processes, there are few tools for their study in the context of a cell. The finding that non-natural monosaccharides could be internalized, processed, and displayed in cellular glycans in the early 1990s led to the development of metabolic incorporation probes for mammalian and microbial organisms. Taking advantage of the development of rapid, bioorthogonal chemistries these probes have provided valuable insight into intermolecular interactions, biosynthetic and metabolic pathways, and intercellular interactions. The successful application of metabolic incorporation probes to bacteria has been hampered by their unfastidious use of monosaccharides for energy production. In this work, we describe an alternative approach to metabolic incorporation, termed biosynthetic incorporation, using synthetic sugar donors that do not require intracellular processing prior to glycosyl transfer.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Calabretta, Phillip Joseph.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Laura L. Kiessling.

• Chemistry.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122712

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/122712