A comprehensive survey of how an important sugar unit binds to proteins of various organisms
What is it about?
Lacto-N-biose I unit, which is made of two sugars connected by a certain kind of bond (Gal-beta1,3-GlcNAc), is one of the key sugar units involved in various biological events, such as interactions between pathogens and human cells, and symbiosis between humans and beneficial gut microbes. This paper watched through hundreds of such kind of examples and picked up several important and interesting features among them.
Why is it important?
I found a typical conformational feature of the lacto-N-biose I units bound to pathogens such as norovirus, rotavirus, influenza virus, polyomavirus, Candida, Toxoplasma, and H. pylori. Some interesting features about the symbiotic nourishment of infant-associated health-promoting gut bacteria (bifidobacteria) by sugars in human breast milk were also found.