In eukaryotes, the combinatorial potential of carbohydrates is used for the modulation of protein function. However, despite the wealth of cell wall and surface-associated carbohydrates and glycoconjugates, the accepted dogma has been that prokaryotes are not able to glycosylate proteins. This has now changed and protein glycosylation in prokaryotes is an accepted fact. Intriguingly, in Gram-negative bacteria most glycoproteins are associated with virulence factors of medically significant pathogens. Also, important steps in pathogenesis have been linked to the glycan substitution of surface proteins, indicating that the glycosylation of bacterial proteins might serve specific functions in infection and pathogenesis and interfere with inflammatory immune responses. Therefore, the carbohydrate modifications and glycosylation pathways of bacterial proteins will become new targets for therapeutic and prophylactic measures. Here we discuss recent findings on the structure, genetics and function of glycoproteins of medically important bacteria and potential applications of bacterial glycosylation systems for the generation of novel glycoconjugates.

中文翻译：

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甜美的新世界：细菌病原体中的糖蛋白。

在真核生物中，碳水化合物的组合潜力可用于调节蛋白质功能。然而，尽管细胞壁和与表面相关的碳水化合物和糖结合物丰富，但公认的教条是原核生物不能糖基化蛋白质。现在这已经改变，原核生物中的蛋白质糖基化已成为公认的事实。有趣的是，在革兰氏阴性细菌中，大多数糖蛋白与医学上重要病原体的毒力因子有关。而且，发病机理中的重要步骤已经与表面蛋白的聚糖取代相关联，表明细菌蛋白的糖基化可能在感染和发病机理中发挥特定功能，并干扰炎症性免疫反应。因此，细菌蛋白的碳水化合物修饰和糖基化途径将成为治疗和预防措施的新目标。在这里，我们讨论有关医学上重要细菌的糖蛋白的结构，遗传学和功能的最新发现，以及细菌糖基化系统在产生新型糖缀合物方面的潜在应用。