The sweet road to synthesis of bacterial sugar structures

该项目旨在利用生物信息学和实验方法相结合的方法来表征细菌中非磺酸糖(NulO)的合成途径。细菌在其细胞表面产生长链的糖或多聚糖，称为胶囊。它们通常含有重要的Nulo，可以通过独特的方式收获，用于营养、化妆品和生物修复行业。通过了解其合成的自然途径，可以合成出具有强大的定制特性的设计葡聚糖。该项目致力于研究含有酸性糖的多糖是如何产生的，以对糖生物学有一个基本的了解，并创建一个数据库，以促进糖工程的工业应用。

This project aims to characterise the synthesis pathways of nonulosonic acid sugars (NulOs) in bacteria using a combination of bioinformatics and experimental methodologies. Bacteria produce long chains of sugars or glycans on their cell surface known as capsules. These often contain important NulOs that can be uniquely harvested for use in the nutrition, cosmetic and bioremediation industries. By understanding the natural pathways of their synthesis, ‘glycans-by-design’ can be synthetically created with potent tailor-made properties. This project endeavours to examine how glycans with acidic sugars are produced to generate a fundamental understanding of sugar biology and create a database that will advance industrial applications in glycoengineering.