Expanding the glycoengineering toolbox: the rise of bacterial N-linked protein glycosylation

Development of a set of bacterial engineered glycoconjugates as novel serogroup-specific antigens for the serodiagnosis of Escherichia coli O26, O111, O103 and O45 infections associated to hemolytic uremic syndrome

Hemolytic uremic syndrome associated to Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli infection (STEC-HUS) is a life-threatening condition characterized by microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and acute kidney failure. Among STEC, E. coli O157:H7 is the dominant serotype related with human disease worldwide; however, a subset of STEC non-O157 serotypes -named the "Big-Six"- that include the E. coli serogroups O145, O121, O26, O111, O103 and O45 became of a great concern for their potential to cause HUS. Previously, we have demonstrated that serological tests based on bacterial engineered glycoconjugates developed by exploiting the Campylobacter jejuni N-glycosylation machinery, notably increases the association rate of HUS to O157, O145 and O121 STEC infections. In this work, we developed the recombinant glycoproteins O26-AcrA, O111-AcrA, O103-AcrA and O45-AcrA by co-expressing in E. coli the gene cluster required for the synthesis of the O polysaccharide corresponding to each serogroup, the C. jejuni oligosaccharyltransferase (OTase) PglB, and the carrier protein AcrA. The glycans attached to AcrA in the produced and purified glycoconjugates were characterized by mass spectrometry. The glycoconjugates were evaluated as antigens for detection of IgM antibodies against the O polysaccharide of the lipopolysaccharide of O26, O111 and O103 STEC strains in human serum samples. Our results demonstrate that O26-AcrA, O111-AcrA and O103-AcrA allow a clear discrimination between negative and positive samples obtained from patients with HUS associated to O26, O111 and O103 STEC infections. Additionally, these novel antigens are serospecific allowing E. coli serogroup identification which may contribute to the epidemiological surveillance of STEC-HUS patients and their contacts.

Cell-Free Gene Expression: Methods and Applications

Cell-free gene expression (CFE) systems empower synthetic biologists to build biological molecules and processes outside of living intact cells. The foundational principle is that precise, complex biomolecular transformations can be conducted in purified enzyme or crude cell lysate systems. This concept circumvents mechanisms that have evolved to facilitate species survival, bypasses limitations on molecular transport across the cell wall, and provides a significant departure from traditional, cell-based processes that rely on microscopic cellular "reactors." In addition, cell-free systems are inherently distributable through freeze-drying, which allows simple distribution before rehydration at the point-of-use. Furthermore, as cell-free systems are nonliving, they provide built-in safeguards for biocontainment without the constraints attendant on genetically modified organisms. These features have led to a significant increase in the development and use of CFE systems over the past two decades. Here, we discuss recent advances in CFE systems and highlight how they are transforming efforts to build cells, control genetic networks, and manufacture biobased products.

A novel multiplex and glycoprotein-based immunochromatographic serologic IgM test for the rapid diagnosis of Escherichia coli O157 and O145 causing bloody diarrhea and hemolytic uremic syndrome

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are the main etiological agents of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Good clinical management of STEC infections and HUS depends on early, rapid, and accurate diagnosis. Here, we have developed and evaluated the first multiplex and glycoprotein-based immunochromatographic test for the detection of IgM antibodies against the O-polysaccharide of the lipopolysaccharide of E. coli O157 and O145 in human serum samples. A retrospective study was carried out resulting in a diagnostic sensitivity of the E. coli O157/O145 LFIA (lateral flow immunoassay) of 97.1% and 98.9% for O157 and O145, respectively, and 97.9% for both serogroups. The diagnostic specificity was 98.7% for O157 and O145, and the overall specificity 97.4%. In samples obtained before 3 days after the onset of diarrhea, the detection percentage was 83%, increasing to 100% from 3 days onward. Finally, the association of bloody diarrhea (BD) or HUS cases to an STEC infection increased from 22.8% to 77.2% when stool culture and stx/Stx detection were combined with serology by LFIA. Our results demonstrate that the E. coli O157/O145 LFIA is a highly accurate and serospecific test for the early and rapid diagnosis of E. coli O157 and O145 infections in BD or HUS cases. This test allows the detection of specific IgM antibodies very early in the course of the infection, making it an ideal diagnostic tool to be implemented in pediatric emergencies and, thus, avoid delays in the application of the correct supportive or specific treatment and prevent complications associated with HUS.

Novel human recombinant N-acetylgalactosamine-6-sulfate sulfatase produced in a glyco-engineered Escherichia coli strain

Mucopolysaccharidosis IVA (MPS IVA) is a lysosomal storage disease caused by mutations in the gene encoding the lysosomal enzyme N-acetylgalactosamine-6-sulfate sulfatase (GALNS), resulting in the accumulation of keratan sulfate (KS) and chondroitin-6-sulfate (C6S). Previously, it was reported the production of an active human recombinant GALNS (rGALNS) in E. coli BL21(DE3). However, this recombinant enzyme was not taken up by HEK293 cells or MPS IVA skin fibroblasts. Here, we leveraged a glyco-engineered E. coli strain to produce a recombinant human GALNS bearing the eukaryotic trimannosyl core N-glycan, Man3GlcNAc2 (rGALNSoptGly). The N-glycosylated GALNS was produced at 100 mL and 1.65 L scales, purified and characterized with respect to pH stability, enzyme kinetic parameters, cell uptake, and KS clearance. The results showed that the addition of trimannosyl core N-glycans enhanced both protein stability and substrate affinity. rGALNSoptGly was capture through a mannose receptor-mediated process. This enzyme was delivered to the lysosome, where it reduced KS storage in human MPS IVA fibroblasts. This study demonstrates the potential of a glyco-engineered E. coli for producing a fully functional GALNS enzyme. It may offer an economic approach for the biosynthesis of a therapeutic glycoprotein that could prove useful for MPS IVA treatment. This strategy could be extended to other lysosomal enzymes that rely on the presence of mannose N-glycans for cell uptake.

Proteogenomics Reveal the Overexpression of HLA-I in Cancer

An accurate quantification of HLA class I gene expression is important in understanding the interplay with the tumor microenvironment of antitumor cytotoxic T cell activities. Because HLA-I sequences are highly variable, standard RNAseq and mass spectrometry-based quantification workflows using common genome and protein sequence references do not provide HLA-I allele specific quantifications. Here, we used personalized HLA-I nucleotide and protein reference sequences based on the subjects' HLA-I genotypes and surveyed tumor and adjacent normal samples from patients across nine cancer types. Mass spectrometry using data dependent acquisition data was validated to be sufficient to estimate HLA-A protein expression at the allele level. We found that HLA-I proteins were present in significantly higher levels in tumors compared to adjacent normal tissues from 41 to 63% of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma, and clear cell renal cell carcinoma patients, and this was driven by increased levels of HLA-I gene transcripts. Most immune cell types are universally enriched in HLA-I high tumors, while endothelial and neuronal cells showed divergent relationships with HLA-I. Pathway analysis revealed that tumor senescence and autophagy activity influence the level of HLA-I proteins in glioblastoma. Genes correlated to HLA-I protein expression are mostly the ones directly involved in HLA-I function in immune response and cell death, while glycosylation genes are exclusively co-expressed with HLA-I at the protein level.

Glycosylation Circuit Enables Improved Catalytic Properties for Recombinant Alkaline Phosphatase

Protein glycosylation is one of the most crucial and common post-translational modifications. It plays a fate-determining role and can alter many properties of proteins. Here, we engineered a Campylobacter jejuni N-linked glycosylation machinery by overexpressing one of the core glycosylation-related enzymes, PgIB, to increase the glycosylation rate. It has been previously shown that by utilizing N-linked glycosylation, certain recombinant proteins have been furnished with improved features, such as stability and solubility. We utilized N-linked glycosylation using an engineered glycosylation pathway to glycosylate a model enzyme, the alkaline phosphatase (ALP) enzyme in Escherichia coli. We have investigated the effects of glycosylation on enzyme properties. Considering the glycosylation mechanism is highly dependent on accessibility of the glycosylation tag, ALP constructs carrying the glycosylation tag at different locations of the gene have been constructed, and glycosylation rates have been calculated. Our results showed that, upon glycosylation, ALP features in terms of thermostability, proteolytic stability, tolerance to suboptimal pH, and denaturing conditions are dramatically improved. The results indicated that the N-linked glycosylation mechanism can be employed for protein manipulation for industrial applications.

Bacterial glycobiotechnology: A biosynthetic route for the production of biopharmaceutical glycans

The recent advancement in the human glycome and progress in the development of an inclusive network of glycosylation pathways allow the incorporation of suitable machinery for protein modification in non-natural hosts and explore novel opportunities for constructing next-generation tailored glycans and glycoconjugates. Fortunately, the emerging field of bacterial metabolic engineering has enabled the production of tailored biopolymers by harnessing living microbial factories (prokaryotes) as whole-cell biocatalysts. Microbial catalysts offer sophisticated means to develop a variety of valuable polysaccharides in bulk quantities for practical clinical applications. Glycans production through this technique is highly efficient and cost-effective, as it does not involve expensive initial materials. Metabolic glycoengineering primarily focuses on utilizing small metabolite molecules to alter biosynthetic pathways, optimization of cellular processes for glycan and glycoconjugate production, characteristic to a specific organism to produce interest tailored glycans in microbes, using preferably cheap and simple substrate. However, metabolic engineering faces one of the unique challenges, such as the need for an enzyme to catalyze desired substrate conversion when natural native substrates are already present. So, in metabolic engineering, such challenges are evaluated, and different strategies have been developed to overcome them. The generation of glycans and glycoconjugates via metabolic intermediate pathways can still be supported by glycol modeling achieved through metabolic engineering. It is evident that modern glycans engineering requires adoption of improved strain engineering strategies for creating competent glycoprotein expression platforms in bacterial hosts, in the future. These strategies include logically designing and introducing orthogonal glycosylation pathways, identifying metabolic engineering targets at the genome level, and strategically improving pathway performance (for example, through genetic modification of pathway enzymes). Here, we highlight current strategies, applications, and recent progress in metabolic engineering for producing high-value tailored glycans and their applications in biotherapeutics and diagnostics.

Engineering the enzyme toolbox to tailor glycosylation in small molecule natural products and protein biologics

Many glycosylated small molecule natural products and glycoprotein biologics are important in a broad range of therapeutic and industrial applications. The sugar moieties that decorate these compounds often show a profound impact on their biological functions, thus biocatalytic methods for controlling their glycosylation are valuable. Enzymes from nature are useful tools to tailor bioproduct glycosylation but these sometimes have limitations in their catalytic efficiency, substrate specificity, regiospecificity, stereospecificity, or stability. Enzyme engineering strategies such as directed evolution or semi-rational and rational design have addressed some of the challenges presented by these limitations. In this review, we highlight some of the recent research on engineering enzymes to tailor the glycosylation of small molecule natural products (including alkaloids, terpenoids, polyketides, and peptides), as well as the glycosylation of protein biologics (including hormones, enzyme-replacement therapies, enzyme inhibitors, vaccines, and antibodies).

Chemical Reporters for Bacterial Glycans: Development and Applications

Bacteria possess an extraordinary repertoire of cell envelope glycans that have critical physiological functions. Pathogenic bacteria have glycans that are essential for growth and virulence but are absent from humans, making them high-priority targets for antibiotic, vaccine, and diagnostic development. The advent of metabolic labeling with bioorthogonal chemical reporters and small-molecule fluorescent reporters has enabled the investigation and targeting of specific bacterial glycans in their native environments. These tools have opened the door to imaging glycan dynamics, assaying and inhibiting glycan biosynthesis, profiling glycoproteins and glycan-binding proteins, and targeting pathogens with diagnostic and therapeutic payload. These capabilities have been wielded in diverse commensal and pathogenic Gram-positive, Gram-negative, and mycobacterial species─including within live host organisms. Here, we review the development and applications of chemical reporters for bacterial glycans, including peptidoglycan, lipopolysaccharide, glycoproteins, teichoic acids, and capsular polysaccharides, as well as mycobacterial glycans, including trehalose glycolipids and arabinan-containing glycoconjugates. We cover in detail how bacteria-targeting chemical reporters are designed, synthesized, and evaluated, how they operate from a mechanistic standpoint, and how this information informs their judicious and innovative application. We also provide a perspective on the current state and future directions of the field, underscoring the need for interdisciplinary teams to create novel tools and extend existing tools to support fundamental and translational research on bacterial glycans.

Genetic and process engineering strategies for enhanced recombinant N-glycoprotein production in bacteria

Background

The production of N-linked glycoproteins in genetically amenable bacterial hosts offers great potential for reduced cost, faster/simpler bioprocesses, greater customisation, and utility for distributed manufacturing of glycoconjugate vaccines and glycoprotein therapeutics. Efforts to optimize production hosts have included heterologous expression of glycosylation enzymes, metabolic engineering, use of alternative secretion pathways, and attenuation of gene expression. However, a major bottleneck to enhance glycosylation efficiency, which limits the utility of the other improvements, is the impact of target protein sequon accessibility during glycosylation.

Results

Here, we explore a series of genetic and process engineering strategies to increase recombinant N-linked glycosylation, mediated by the Campylobacter-derived PglB oligosaccharyltransferase in Escherichia coli. Strategies include increasing membrane residency time of the target protein by modifying the cleavage site of its secretion signal, and modulating protein folding in the periplasm by use of oxygen limitation or strains with compromised oxidoreductase or disulphide-bond isomerase activity. These approaches achieve up to twofold improvement in glycosylation efficiency. Furthermore, we also demonstrate that supplementation with the chemical oxidant cystine enhances the titre of glycoprotein in an oxidoreductase knockout strain by improving total protein production and cell fitness, while at the same time maintaining higher levels of glycosylation efficiency.

Conclusions

In this study, we demonstrate that improved protein glycosylation in the heterologous host could be achieved by mimicking the coordination between protein translocation, folding and glycosylation observed in native host such as Campylobacter jejuni and mammalian cells. Furthermore, it provides insight into strain engineering and bioprocess strategies, to improve glycoprotein yield and titre, and to avoid physiological burden of unfolded protein stress upon cell growth. The process and genetic strategies identified herein will inform further optimisation and scale-up of heterologous recombinant N-glycoprotein production.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12934-021-01689-x.

Cotranslational Translocation and Folding of a Periplasmic Protein Domain in Escherichia coli

In Gram-negative bacteria, periplasmic domains in inner membrane proteins are cotranslationally translocated across the inner membrane through the SecYEG translocon. To what degree such domains also start to fold cotranslationally is generally difficult to determine using currently available methods. Here, we apply Force Profile Analysis (FPA) - a method where a translational arrest peptide is used to detect folding-induced forces acting on the nascent polypeptide - to follow the cotranslational translocation and folding of the large periplasmic domain of the E. coli inner membrane protease LepB in vivo. Membrane insertion of LepB's two N-terminal transmembrane helices is initiated when their respective N-terminal ends reach 45-50 residues away from the peptidyl transferase center (PTC) in the ribosome. The main folding transition in the periplasmic domain involves all but the ~15 most C-terminal residues of the protein and happens when the C-terminal end of the folded part is ~70 residues away from the PTC; a smaller putative folding intermediate is also detected. This implies that wildtype LepB folds post-translationally in vivo, and shows that FPA can be used to study both co- and post-translational protein folding in the periplasm.

Cell-free systems for accelerating glycoprotein expression and biomanufacturing

Protein glycosylation, the enzymatic modification of amino acid sidechains with sugar moieties, plays critical roles in cellular function, human health, and biotechnology. However, studying and producing defined glycoproteins remains challenging. Cell-free glycoprotein synthesis systems, in which protein synthesis and glycosylation are performed in crude cell extracts, offer new approaches to address these challenges. Here, we review versatile, state-of-the-art systems for biomanufacturing glycoproteins in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell-free systems with natural and synthetic N-linked glycosylation pathways. We discuss existing challenges and future opportunities in the use of cell-free systems for the design, manufacture, and study of glycoprotein biomedicines.

Predicting in vivo therapeutic efficacy of bioorthogonally labeled endothelial progenitor cells in hind limb ischemia models via non-invasive fluorescence molecular tomography

Human embryonic stem cells-derived endothelial progenitor cells (hEPCs) were utilized as cell therapeutics for the treatment of ischemic diseases. However, in vivo tracking of hEPCs for predicting their therapeutic efficacy is very difficult. Herein, we developed bioorthogonal labeling strategy of hEPCs that could non-invasively track them after transplantation in hind limb ischemia models. First, hEPCs were treated with tetraacylated N-azidomannosamine (Ac₄ManNAz) for generating unnatural azide groups on the hEPCs surface. Second, near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) dye, Cy5, conjugated dibenzocylooctyne (DBCO-Cy5) was chemically conjugated to the azide groups on the hEPC surface via copper-free click chemistry, resulting Cy5-hEPCs. The bioorthogonally labeled Cy5-hEPCs showed strong NIRF signal without cytotoxicity and functional perturbation in tubular formation, oxygen consumption and paracrine effect of hEPCs in vitro. In hind limb ischemia models, the distribution and migration of transplanted Cy5-hEPCs were successfully monitored via fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) for 28 days. Notably, blood reperfusion and therapeutic neovascularization effects were significantly correlated with the initial transplantation forms of Cy5-hEPCs such as 'condensed round shape' and 'spread shape' in the ischemic lesion. The condensed transplanted Cy5-hEPCs substantially increased the therapeutic efficacy of hind limb ischemia, compared to that of spread Cy5-hEPCs. Therefore, our new stem cell labeling strategy can be used to predict therapeutic efficacy in hind limb ischemia and it can be applied a potential application in developing cell therapeutics for regenerative medicine.

Protein Glycoengineering: An Approach for Improving Protein Properties

Natural proteins are an important source of therapeutic agents and industrial enzymes. While many of them have the potential to be used as highly effective medical treatments for a wide range of diseases or as catalysts for conversion of a range of molecules into important product types required by modern society, problems associated with poor biophysical and biological properties have limited their applications. Engineering proteins with reduced side-effects and/or improved biophysical and biological properties is therefore of great importance. As a common protein modification, glycosylation has the capacity to greatly influence these properties. Over the past three decades, research from many disciplines has established the importance of glycoengineering in overcoming the limitations of proteins. In this review, we will summarize the methods that have been used to glycoengineer proteins and briefly discuss some representative examples of these methods, with the goal of providing a general overview of this research area.

Synthetic Glycobiology: Parts, Systems, and Applications

Protein glycosylation, the attachment of sugars to amino acid side chains, can endow proteins with a wide variety of properties of great interest to the engineering biology community. However, natural glycosylation systems are limited in the diversity of glycoproteins they can synthesize, the scale at which they can be harnessed for biotechnology, and the homogeneity of glycoprotein structures they can produce. Here we provide an overview of the emerging field of synthetic glycobiology, the application of synthetic biology tools and design principles to better understand and engineer glycosylation. Specifically, we focus on how the biosynthetic and analytical tools of synthetic biology have been used to redesign glycosylation systems to obtain defined glycosylation structures on proteins for diverse applications in medicine, materials, and diagnostics. We review the key biological parts available to synthetic biologists interested in engineering glycoproteins to solve compelling problems in glycoscience, describe recent efforts to construct synthetic glycoprotein synthesis systems, and outline exemplary applications as well as new opportunities in this emerging space.

How many human proteoforms are there?

Despite decades of accumulated knowledge about proteins and their post-translational modifications (PTMs), numerous questions remain regarding their molecular composition and biological function. One of the most fundamental queries is the extent to which the combinations of DNA-, RNA- and PTM-level variations explode the complexity of the human proteome. Here, we outline what we know from current databases and measurement strategies including mass spectrometry-based proteomics. In doing so, we examine prevailing notions about the number of modifications displayed on human proteins and how they combine to generate the protein diversity underlying health and disease. We frame central issues regarding determination of protein-level variation and PTMs, including some paradoxes present in the field today. We use this framework to assess existing data and to ask the question, "How many distinct primary structures of proteins (proteoforms) are created from the 20,300 human genes?" We also explore prospects for improving measurements to better regularize protein-level biology and efficiently associate PTMs to function and phenotype.

Improving designer glycan production in Escherichia coli through model-guided metabolic engineering

Asparagine-linked (N-linked) glycosylation is the most common protein modification in eukaryotes, affecting over two-thirds of the proteome. Glycosylation is also critical to the pharmacokinetic activity and immunogenicity of many therapeutic proteins currently produced in complex eukaryotic hosts. The discovery of a protein glycosylation pathway in the pathogen Campylobacter jejuni and its subsequent transfer into laboratory strains of Escherichia coli has spurred great interest in glycoprotein production in prokaryotes. However, prokaryotic glycoprotein production has several drawbacks, including insufficient availability of non-native glycan precursors. To address this limitation, we used a constraint-based model of E. coli metabolism in combination with heuristic optimization to design gene knockout strains that overproduced glycan precursors. First, we incorporated reactions associated with C. jejuni glycan assembly into a genome-scale model of E. coli metabolism. We then identified gene knockout strains that coupled optimal growth to glycan synthesis. Simulations suggested that these growth-coupled glycan overproducing strains had metabolic imbalances that rerouted flux toward glycan precursor synthesis. We then validated the model-identified knockout strains experimentally by measuring glycan expression using a flow cytometric-based assay involving fluorescent labeling of cell surface-displayed glycans. Overall, this study demonstrates the promising role that metabolic modeling can play in optimizing the performance of a next-generation microbial glycosylation platform.

Metabolic engineering of glycoprotein biosynthesis in bacteria

The demonstration more than a decade ago that glycoproteins could be produced in Escherichia coli cells equipped with the N-linked protein glycosylation machinery from Campylobacter jejuni opened the door to using simple bacteria for the expression and engineering of complex glycoproteins. Since that time, metabolic engineering has played an increasingly important role in developing and optimizing microbial cell glyco-factories for the production of diverse glycoproteins and other glycoconjugates. It is becoming clear that future progress in creating efficient glycoprotein expression platforms in bacteria will depend on the adoption of advanced strain engineering strategies such as rational design and assembly of orthogonal glycosylation pathways, genome-wide identification of metabolic engineering targets, and evolutionary engineering of pathway performance. Here, we highlight recent advances in the deployment of metabolic engineering tools and strategies to develop microbial cell glyco-factories for the production of high-value glycoprotein targets with applications in research and medicine.

Platform development for expression and purification of stable isotope labeled monoclonal antibodies in Escherichia coli

The widespread use of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) as a platform for therapeutic drug development in the pharmaceutical industry has led to an increased interest in robust experimental approaches for assessment of mAb structure, stability and dynamics. The ability to enrich proteins with stable isotopes is a prerequisite for the in-depth application of many structural and biophysical methods, including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), small angle neutron scattering, neutron reflectometry, and quantitative mass spectrometry. While mAbs can typically be produced with very high yields using mammalian cell expression, stable isotope labeling using cell culture is expensive and often impractical. The most common and cost-efficient approach to label proteins is to express proteins in Escherichia coli grown in minimal media; however, such methods for mAbs have not been reported to date. Here we present, for the first time, the expression and purification of a stable isotope labeled mAb from a genetically engineered E. coli strain capable of forming disulfide bonds in its cytoplasm. It is shown using two-dimensional NMR spectral fingerprinting that the unlabeled mAb and the mAb singly or triply labeled with ¹³C, ¹⁵N, ²H are well folded, with only minor structural differences relative to the mammalian cell-produced mAb that are attributed to the lack of glycosylation in the Fc domain. This advancement of an E. coli-based mAb expression platform will facilitate the production of mAbs for in-depth structural characterization, including the high resolution investigation of mechanisms of action.

Glycosylation of extracellular vesicles: current knowledge, tools and clinical perspectives

It is now acknowledged that extracellular vesicles (EVs) are important effectors in a vast number of biological processes through intercellular transfer of biomolecules. Increasing research efforts in the EV field have yielded an appreciation for the potential role of glycans in EV function. Indeed, recent reports show that the presence of glycoconjugates is involved in EV biogenesis, in cellular recognition and in the efficient uptake of EVs by recipient cells. It is clear that a full understanding of EV biology will require researchers to focus also on EV glycosylation through glycomics approaches. This review outlines the major glycomics techniques that have been applied to EVs in the context of the recent findings. Beyond understanding the mechanisms by which EVs mediate their physiological functions, glycosylation also provides opportunities by which to engineer EVs for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes. Studies characterising the glycan composition of EVs have highlighted glycome changes in various disease states, thus indicating potential for EV glycans as diagnostic markers. Meanwhile, glycans have been targeted as molecular handles for affinity-based isolation in both research and clinical contexts. An overview of current strategies to exploit EV glycosylation and a discussion of the implications of recent findings for the burgeoning EV industry follows the below review of glycomics and its application to EV biology.

Expression of Glycosylated Proteins in Bacterial System and Purification by Affinity Chromatography

The bacterial expression of glycoproteins has experienced significant progress in recent years, particularly in regard to the production of conjugate vaccines against pathogens. In this case, a protein carrier conjugated with glycosides is used to produce intense stimulation of the immune system. Glycoconjugate vaccines account for 35% of the global vaccine market, and consequently, several biotechnological companies have developed products for the purification of glycosylated proteins to attain homogeneity. In this chapter we present a general process for glycoprotein production in Escherichia coli and a practice method for purification of glycosylated proteins, using affinity chromatography.

A cell-free platform for rapid synthesis and testing of active oligosaccharyltransferases

Protein glycosylation, or the attachment of sugar moieties (glycans) to proteins, is important for protein stability, activity, and immunogenicity. However, understanding the roles and regulations of site-specific glycosylation events remains a significant challenge due to several technological limitations. These limitations include a lack of available tools for biochemical characterization of enzymes involved in glycosylation. A particular challenge is the synthesis of oligosaccharyltransferases (OSTs), which catalyze the attachment of glycans to specific amino acid residues in target proteins. The difficulty arises from the fact that canonical OSTs are large (>70 kDa) and possess multiple transmembrane helices, making them difficult to overexpress in living cells. Here, we address this challenge by establishing a bacterial cell-free protein synthesis platform that enables rapid production of a variety of OSTs in their active conformations. Specifically, by using lipid nanodiscs as cellular membrane mimics, we obtained yields of up to 420 μg/ml for the single-subunit OST enzyme, "Protein glycosylation B" (PglB) from Campylobacter jejuni, as well as for three additional PglB homologs from Campylobacter coli, Campylobacter lari, and Desulfovibrio gigas. Importantly, all of these enzymes catalyzed N-glycosylation reactions in vitro with no purification or processing needed. Furthermore, we demonstrate the ability of cell-free synthesized OSTs to glycosylate multiple target proteins with varying N-glycosylation acceptor sequons. We anticipate that this broadly applicable production method will advance glycoengineering efforts by enabling preparative expression of membrane-embedded OSTs from all kingdoms of life.

Rapid customised operon assembly by yeast recombinational cloning

We have developed a system called the Operon Assembly Protocol (OAP), which takes advantage of the homologous recombination DNA repair pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae to assemble full-length operons from a series of overlapping PCR products into a specially engineered yeast-Escherichia coli shuttle vector. This flexible, streamlined system can be used to assemble several operon clones simultaneously, and each clone can be expressed in the same E. coli tester strain to facilitate direct functional comparisons. We demonstrated the utility of the OAP by assembling and expressing a series of E. coli O1A O-antigen gene cluster clones containing various gene deletions or replacements. We then used these constructs to assess the substrate preferences of several Wzx flippases, which are responsible for translocation of oligosaccharide repeat units (O units) across the inner membrane during O-antigen biosynthesis. We were able to identify several O unit structural features that appear to be important determinants of Wzx substrate preference. The OAP system should be broadly applicable for the genetic manipulation of any bacterial operon and can be modified for use in other host species. It could also have potential uses in fields such as glycoengineering.

Insights from molecular dynamics simulations for computational protein design

A grand challenge in the field of structural biology is to design and engineer proteins that exhibit targeted functions. Although much success on this front has been achieved, design success rates remain low, an ever-present reminder of our limited understanding of the relationship between amino acid sequences and the structures they adopt. In addition to experimental techniques and rational design strategies, computational methods have been employed to aid in the design and engineering of proteins. Molecular dynamics (MD) is one such method that simulates the motions of proteins according to classical dynamics. Here, we review how insights into protein dynamics derived from MD simulations have influenced the design of proteins. One of the greatest strengths of MD is its capacity to reveal information beyond what is available in the static structures deposited in the Protein Data Bank. In this regard simulations can be used to directly guide protein design by providing atomistic details of the dynamic molecular interactions contributing to protein stability and function. MD simulations can also be used as a virtual screening tool to rank, select, identify, and assess potential designs. MD is uniquely poised to inform protein design efforts where the application requires realistic models of protein dynamics and atomic level descriptions of the relationship between dynamics and function. Here, we review cases where MD simulations was used to modulate protein stability and protein function by providing information regarding the conformation(s), conformational transitions, interactions, and dynamics that govern stability and function. In addition, we discuss cases where conformations from protein folding/unfolding simulations have been exploited for protein design, yielding novel outcomes that could not be obtained from static structures.

Glycolipid substrates for ABC transporters required for the assembly of bacterial cell-envelope and cell-surface glycoconjugates

Glycoconjugates, molecules that contain sugar components, are major components of the cell envelopes of bacteria and cover much of their exposed surfaces. These molecules are involved in interactions with the surrounding environment and, in pathogens, play critical roles in the interplay with the host immune system. Despite the remarkable diversity in glycoconjugate structures, most are assembled by glycosyltransferases that act on lipid acceptors at the cytosolic membrane. The resulting glycolipids are then transported to the cell surface in processes that frequently begin with ATP-binding cassette transporters. This review summarizes current understanding of the structure and biosynthesis of glycolipid substrates and the structure and functions of their transporters. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Bacterial Lipids edited by Russell E. Bishop.

Bacterial β-Kdo glycosyltransferases represent a new glycosyltransferase family (GT99)

Kdo (3-deoxy-d-manno-oct-2-ulosonic acid) is an eight-carbon sugar mostly confined to Gram-negative bacteria. It is often involved in attaching surface polysaccharides to their lipid anchors. α-Kdo provides a bridge between lipid A and the core oligosaccharide in all bacterial LPSs, whereas an oligosaccharide of β-Kdo residues links "group 2" capsular polysaccharides to (lyso)phosphatidylglycerol. β-Kdo is also found in a small number of other bacterial polysaccharides. The structure and function of the prototypical cytidine monophosphate-Kdo-dependent α-Kdo glycosyltransferase from LPS assembly is well characterized. In contrast, the β-Kdo counterparts were not identified as glycosyltransferase enzymes by bioinformatics tools and were not represented among the 98 currently recognized glycosyltransferase families in the Carbohydrate-Active Enzymes database. We report the crystallographic structure and function of a prototype β-Kdo GT from WbbB, a modular protein participating in LPS O-antigen synthesis in Raoultella terrigena The β-Kdo GT has dual Rossmann-fold motifs typical of GT-B enzymes, but extensive deletions, insertions, and rearrangements result in a unique architecture that makes it a prototype for a new GT family (GT99). The cytidine monophosphate-binding site in the C-terminal α/β domain closely resembles the corresponding site in bacterial sialyltransferases, suggesting an evolutionary connection that is not immediately evident from the overall fold or sequence similarities.

The sweet branch of metabolic engineering: cherry-picking the low-hanging sugary fruits

In the first science review on the then nascent Metabolic Engineering field in 1991, Dr. James E. Bailey described how improving erythropoietin (EPO) glycosylation can be achieved via metabolic engineering of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. In the intervening decades, metabolic engineering has brought sweet successes in glycoprotein engineering, including antibodies, vaccines, and other human therapeutics. Today, not only eukaryotes (CHO, plant, insect, yeast) are being used for manufacturing protein therapeutics with human-like glycosylation, newly elucidated bacterial glycosylation systems are enthusiastically embraced as potential breakthrough to revolutionize the biopharmaceutical industry. Notwithstanding these excitement in glycoprotein, the sweet metabolic engineering reaches far beyond glycoproteins. Many different types of oligo- and poly-saccharides are synthesized with metabolically engineered cells. For example, several recombinant hyaluronan bioprocesses are now in commercial production, and the titer of 2′-fucosyllactose, the most abundant fucosylated trisaccharide in human milk, reaches over 20 g/L with engineered E. coli cells. These successes represent only the first low hanging fruits, which have been appreciated scientifically, medically and fortunately, commercially as well. As one of the four building blocks of life, sugar molecules permeate almost all aspects of life. They are also unique in being intimately associated with all major types of biopolymers (including DNA/RNA, proteins, lipids) meanwhile they stand alone as bioactive polysaccharides, or free soluble oligosaccharides. As such, all sugar moieties in biological components, small or big and free or bound, are important targets for metabolic engineering. Opportunities abound at the interface of glycosciences and metabolic engineering. Continued investment and successes in this branch of metabolic engineering will make vastly diverse sugar-containing molecules (a.k.a. glycoconjugates) available for biomedical applications, sustainable technology development, and as invaluable tools for basic scientific research. This short review focuses on the most recent development in the field, with emphasis on the synthesis technology for glycoprotein, polysaccharide, and oligosaccharide.

Carbohydrate Structure Database: tools for statistical analysis of bacterial, plant and fungal glycomes

Carbohydrates are biological blocks participating in diverse and crucial processes both at cellular and organism levels. They protect individual cells, establish intracellular interactions, take part in the immune reaction and participate in many other processes. Glycosylation is considered as one of the most important modifications of proteins and other biologically active molecules. Still, the data on the enzymatic machinery involved in the carbohydrate synthesis and processing are scattered, and the advance on its study is hindered by the vast bulk of accumulated genetic information not supported by any experimental evidences for functions of proteins that are encoded by these genes. In this article, we present novel instruments for statistical analysis of glycomes in taxa. These tools may be helpful for investigating carbohydrate-related enzymatic activities in various groups of organisms and for comparison of their carbohydrate content. The instruments are developed on the Carbohydrate Structure Database (CSDB) platform and are available freely on the CSDB web-site at http://csdb.glycoscience.ru.

Database URL: http://csdb.glycoscience.ru

Carbohydrate structure database merged from bacterial, archaeal, plant and fungal parts

The Carbohydrate Structure Databases (CSDBs, http://csdb.glycoscience.ru) store structural, bibliographic, taxonomic, NMR spectroscopic, and other data on natural carbohydrates and their derivatives published in the scientific literature. The CSDB project was launched in 2005 for bacterial saccharides (as BCSDB). Currently, it includes two parts, the Bacterial CSDB and the Plant&Fungal CSDB. In March 2015, these databases were merged to the single CSDB. The combined CSDB includes information on bacterial and archaeal glycans and derivatives (the coverage is close to complete), as well as on plant and fungal glycans and glycoconjugates (almost all structures published up to 1998). CSDB is regularly updated via manual expert annotation of original publications. Both newly annotated data and data imported from other databases are manually curated. The CSDB data are exportable in a number of modern formats, such as GlycoRDF. CSDB provides additional services for simulation of (1)H, (13)C and 2D NMR spectra of saccharides, NMR-based structure prediction, glycan-based taxon clustering and other.

Mammalian protein glycosylation--structure versus function

Carbohydrates fulfil many common as well as extremely important functions in nature. They show a variety of molecular displays--e.g., free mono-, oligo-, and polysaccharides, glycolipids, proteoglycans, glycoproteins, etc.--with particular roles and localizations in living organisms. Structure-specific peculiarities are so many and diverse that it becomes virtually impossible to cover them all from an analytical perspective. Hence this manuscript, focused on mammalian glycosylation, rather than a complete list of analytical descriptors or recognized functions for carbohydrate structures, comprehensively reviews three central issues in current glycoscience, namely (i) structural analysis of glycoprotein glycans, covering both classical and novel approaches for teasing out the structural puzzle as well as potential pitfalls of these processes; (ii) an overview of functions attributed to carbohydrates, covering from monosaccharide to complex, well-defined epitopes and full glycans, including post-glycosylational modifications, and (iii) recent technical advances allowing structural identification of glycoprotein glycans with simultaneous assignation of biological functions.

Using glyco-engineering to produce therapeutic proteins

INTRODUCTION

Glycans are increasingly important in the development of new biopharmaceuticals with optimized efficacy, half-life, and antigenicity. Current expression platforms for recombinant glycoprotein therapeutics typically do not produce homogeneous glycans and frequently display non-human glycans which may cause unwanted side effects. To circumvent these issues, glyco-engineering has been applied to different expression systems including mammalian cells, insect cells, yeast, and plants.

AREAS COVERED

This review summarizes recent developments in glyco-engineering focusing mainly on in vivo expression systems for recombinant proteins. The highlighted strategies aim at producing glycoproteins with homogeneous N- and O-linked glycans of defined composition.

EXPERT OPINION

Glyco-engineering of expression platforms is increasingly recognized as an important strategy to improve biopharmaceuticals. A better understanding and control of the factors leading to glycan heterogeneity will allow simplified production of recombinant glycoprotein therapeutics with less variation in terms of glycosylation. Further technological advances will have a major impact on manufacturing processes and may provide a completely new class of glycoprotein therapeutics with customized functions.

Carboxybetaine Modified Interface for Electrochemical Glycoprofiling of Antibodies Isolated from Human Serum

Impedimetric lectin biosensors capable of recognizing two different carbohydrates (galactose and sialic acid) in glycans attached to antibodies isolated from human serum were prepared. The first step entailed the modification of a gold surface by a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) deposited from a solution containing a carboxybetaine-terminated thiol applied to the subsequent covalent immobilization of lectins and to resist nonspecific protein adsorption. In the next step, Sambucus nigra agglutinin (SNA) or Ricinus communis agglutinin (RCA) was covalently attached to the SAM, and the whole process of building a bioreceptive layer was optimized and characterized using a diverse range of techniques including electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, quartz crystal microbalance, contact angle measurements, zeta-potential assays, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy. In addition, the application of the SNA-based lectin biosensor in the glycoprofiling of antibodies isolated from the human sera of healthy individuals and of patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was successfully validated using an SNA-based lectin microarray. The results showed that the SNA lectin, in particular, is capable of discriminating between the antibodies isolated from healthy individuals and those from RA patients based on changes in the amount of sialic acid present in the antibodies. In addition, the results obtained by the application of RCA and SNA biosensors indicate that the abundance of galactose and sialic acid in antibodies isolated from healthy individuals is age-related.

Perspectives in glycomics and lectin engineering

This chapter would like to provide a short survey of the most promising concepts applied recently in analysis of glycoproteins based on lectins. The first part describes the most exciting analytical approaches used in the field of glycoprofiling based on integration of nanoparticles, nanowires, nanotubes, or nanochannels or using novel transducing platforms allowing to detect very low levels of glycoproteins in a label-free mode of operation. The second part describes application of recombinant lectins containing several tags applied for oriented and ordered immobilization of lectins. Besides already established concepts of glycoprofiling several novel aspects, which we think will be taken into account for future, more robust glycan analysis, are described including modified lectins, peptide lectin aptamers, and DNA aptamers with lectin-like specificity introduced by modified nucleotides. The last part of the chapter describes a novel concept of a glycocodon, which can lead to a better understanding of glycan-lectin interaction and for design of novel lectins with unknown specificities and/or better affinities toward glycan target or for rational design of peptide lectin aptamers or DNA aptamers.

Beyond the cytoplasm of Escherichia coli: localizing recombinant proteins where you want them

Recombinant protein expression in Escherichia coli represents a cornerstone of the biotechnology enterprise. While cytoplasmic expression in this host has received the most attention, achieving substantial yields of correctly folded proteins in this compartment can sometimes be met with difficulties. These issues can often be overcome by targeting protein expression to extracytoplasmic compartments (e.g., membrane, periplasm) or to the culture medium. This chapter discusses various strategies for exporting proteins out of the cytoplasm as well as tools for monitoring and optimizing these different export mechanisms.

Can glycoprofiling be helpful in detecting prostate cancer?

Glycans are chains of carbohydrates attached to proteins (glycoproteins and proteoglycans) or lipids (glycolipids). Glycosylation is a posttranslational modification and glycans have a wide range of functions in a human body including involvement in oncological diseases. Change in a glycan structure cannot only indicate presence of a pathological process, but more importantly in some cases also its stage. Thus, a glycan analysis has a potential to be an effective and reliable tool in cancer diagnostics. Lectins are proteins responsible for natural biorecognition of glycans, even carbohydrate moieties still attached to proteins or whole cells can be recognized by lectins, what makes them an ideal candidate for designing label-free biosensors for glycan analysis. In this review we would like to summarize evidence that glycoprofiling of biomarkers by lectin-based biosensors can be really helpful in detecting prostate cancer.

Serogroup-specific bacterial engineered glycoproteins as novel antigenic targets for diagnosis of shiga toxin-producing-escherichia coli-associated hemolytic-uremic syndrome

Human infection with Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) is a major cause of postdiarrheal hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), a life-threatening condition characterized by hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and acute renal failure. E. coli O157:H7 is the dominant STEC serotype associated with HUS worldwide, although non-O157 STEC serogroups can cause a similar disease. The detection of anti-O157 E. coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) antibodies in combination with stool culture and detection of free fecal Shiga toxin considerably improves the diagnosis of STEC infections. In the present study, we exploited a bacterial glycoengineering technology to develop recombinant glycoproteins consisting of the O157, O145, or O121 polysaccharide attached to a carrier protein as serogroup-specific antigens for the serological diagnosis of STEC-associated HUS. Our results demonstrate that using these antigens in indirect ELISAs (glyco-iELISAs), it is possible to clearly discriminate between STEC O157-, O145-, and O121-infected patients and healthy children, as well as to confirm the diagnosis in HUS patients for whom the classical diagnostic procedures failed. Interestingly, a specific IgM response was detected in almost all the analyzed samples, indicating that it is possible to detect the infection in the early stages of the disease. Additionally, in all the culture-positive HUS patients, the serotype identified by glyco-iELISAs was in accordance with the serotype of the isolated strain, indicating that these antigens are valuable not only for diagnosing HUS caused by the O157, O145, and O121 serogroups but also for serotyping and guiding the subsequent steps to confirm diagnosis.

Domain interactions control complex formation and polymerase specificity in the biosynthesis of the Escherichia coli O9a antigen

The Escherichia coli O9a O-polysaccharide (O-PS) is a prototype for bacterial glycan synthesis and export by an ATP-binding cassette transporter-dependent pathway. The O9a O-PS possesses a tetrasaccharide repeat unit comprising two α-(1→2)- and two α-(1→3)-linked mannose residues and is extended on a polyisoprenoid lipid carrier by the action of a polymerase (WbdA) containing two glycosyltransferase active sites. The N-terminal domain of WbdA possesses α-(1→2)-mannosyltransferase activity, and we demonstrate in this study that the C-terminal domain is an α-(1→3)-mannosyltransferase. Previous studies established that the size of the O9a polysaccharide is determined by the chain-terminating dual kinase/methyltransferase (WbdD) that is tethered to the membrane and recruits WbdA into an active enzyme complex by protein-protein interactions. Here, we used bacterial two-hybrid analysis to identify a surface-exposed α-helix in the C-terminal mannosyltransferase domain of WbdA as the site of interaction with WbdD. However, the C-terminal domain was unable to interact with WbdD in the absence of its N-terminal partner. Through deletion analysis, we demonstrated that the α-(1→2)-mannosyltransferase activity of the N-terminal domain is regulated by the activity of the C-terminal α-(1→3)-mannosyltransferase. In mutants where the C-terminal catalytic site was deleted but the WbdD-interaction site remained, the N-terminal mannosyltransferase became an unrestricted polymerase, creating a novel polymer comprising only α-(1→2)-linked mannose residues. The WbdD protein therefore orchestrates critical localization and coordination of activities involved in chain extension and termination. Complex domain interactions are needed to position the polymerase components appropriately for assembly into a functional complex located at the cytoplasmic membrane.

The putative eukaryote-like O-GlcNAc transferase of the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 hydrolyzes UDP-GlcNAc and is involved in multiple cellular processes

The posttranslational addition of a single O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) to serine or threonine residues regulates numerous metazoan cellular processes. The enzyme responsible for this modification, O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT), is conserved among a wide variety of organisms and is critical for the viability of many eukaryotes. Although OGTs with domain structures similar to those of eukaryotic OGTs are predicted for many bacterial species, the cellular roles of these OGTs are unknown. We have identified a putative OGT in the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 that shows active-site homology and similar domain structure to eukaryotic OGTs. An OGT deletion mutant was created and found to exhibit several phenotypes. Without agitation, mutant cells aggregate and settle out of the medium. The mutant cells have higher free inorganic phosphate levels, wider thylakoid lumen, and differential accumulation of electron-dense inclusion bodies. These phenotypes are rescued by reintroduction of the wild-type OGT but are not fully rescued by OGTs with single amino acid substitutions corresponding to mutations that reduce eukaryotic OGT activity. S. elongatus OGT purified from Escherichia coli hydrolyzed the sugar donor, UDP-GlcNAc, while the mutant OGTs that did not fully rescue the deletion mutant phenotypes had reduced or no activity. These results suggest that bacterial eukaryote-like OGTs, like their eukaryotic counterparts, influence multiple processes.

Introducing glycophage arrays: facile production, purification and patterning of glycophages

Glycosylation is a widespread post-translational modification that plays important roles in health and disease. As glycan sequence and structure are not directly coded into the genome, our understanding of glycans and their functions in biological systems is much more primitive than that of DNA and proteins.Recently, printed glycan microarrays (glycoarrays) have emerged as powerful, high-throughput tools for screening glycan-protein interactions[1,2], and have been applied in disease detection [3], drug discovery [4], the study of immunity [5], and host-pathogen interactions [1, 2], among others.Unfortunately, glycoarray applications are currently limited by the expensive and complex methods available to synthesize glycans or alternatively, by the challenges in identifying and tagging glycans from natural sources [6, 7]. In this issue of Biotechnology Journal, Çelik et al. [8] introduce a potentially powerful new method for facile, scalable production, and purification of glycans compatible with microarray patterning. Çelik et al.’s [8] approach is based on innovative deployment of filamentous phage display so that the displayed proteins can be tagged with specific glycans of interest (glycophages) and subsequently patterned in array format.

Glycoarrays with engineered phages displaying structurally diverse oligosaccharides enable high-throughput detection of glycan-protein interactions

Glycan microarrays have become a powerful platform to investigate the interactions of carbohydrates with a variety of biomolecules. However, the number and diversity of glycans available for use in such arrays represent a key bottleneck in glycan array fabrication. To address this challenge, we describe a novel glycan array platform based on surface patterning of engineered glycophages that display unique carbohydrate epitopes. Specifically, we show that glycophages are compatible with surface immobilization procedures and that phage-displayed oligosaccharides retain the ability to be recognized by different glycan-binding proteins (e.g. antibodies and lectins) after immobilization. A key advantage of glycophage arrays is that large quantities of glycophages can be produced biosynthetically from recombinant bacteria and isolated directly from bacterial supernatants without laborious purification steps. Taken together, the glycophage array technology described here should help to expand the diversity of glycan libraries and provide a complement to the existing toolkit for high-throughput analysis of glycan-protein interactions.

Nanoscale controlled architecture for development of ultrasensitive lectin biosensors applicable in glycomics

In this Minireview the most advanced patterning protocols and transducing schemes for development of ultrasensitive label-free and label-based lectin biosensors for glycoprofiling of disease markers and some cancerous cells are described. Performance of such lectin biosensors with interfacial properties tuned at a nanoscale are critically compared to the most sensitive immunoassay format of analysis and challenges ahead in the field are discussed. Moreover, key elements for future advances of such devices on the way to enhance robustness and practical applicability of lectin biosensors are revealed.