Print Email Facebook Twitter Catabolism of sialic acids in an environmental microbial community Title Catabolism of sialic acids in an environmental microbial community Author Tomas Martinez, S. (TU Delft BT/Environmental Biotechnology) Chen, L.M. (TU Delft BT/Environmental Biotechnology) Neu, Thomas R. (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ) Weissbrodt, D.G. (TU Delft BT/Environmental Biotechnology) van Loosdrecht, Mark C.M. (TU Delft BT/Environmental Biotechnology) Lin, Y. (TU Delft Environmental Fluid Mechanics) Date 2022 Abstract Sialic acids are a family of nine-carbon negatively charged carbohydrates. In animals, they are abundant on mucosa surfaces as terminal carbohydrates of mucin glycoproteins. Some commensal and pathogenic bacteria are able to release, take up and catabolize sialic acids. Recently, sialic acids have been discovered to be widespread among most microorganisms. Although the catabolism of sialic acids has been intensively investigated in the field of host-microbe interactions, very limited information is available on microbial degradation of sialic acids produced by environmental microorganisms. In this study, the catabolic pathways of sialic acids within a microbial community dominated by 'Candidatus Accumulibacter' were evaluated. Protein alignment tools were used to detect the presence of the different proteins involved in the utilization of sialic acids in the flanking populations detected by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. The results showed the ability of Clostridium to release sialic acids from the glycan chains by the action of a sialidase. Clostridium and Chryseobacterium can take up free sialic acids and utilize them as nutrient. Interestingly, these results display similarities with the catabolism of sialic acids by the gut microbiota. This study points at the importance of sialic acids in environmental communities in the absence of eukaryotic hosts. Subject biological phosphorus removalenvironmental microbial communityextracellular polymeric substancesnonulosonic acids‘Ca.Accumulibacter’ To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:30e47394-25fd-4d23-a707-5981ecc2e47d DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/femsec/fiac047 Embargo date 2023-07-01 Source FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 98 (5) Bibliographical note Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public. Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2022 S. Tomas Martinez, L.M. Chen, Thomas R. Neu, D.G. Weissbrodt, Mark C.M. van Loosdrecht, Y. Lin Files PDF fiac047.pdf 1.64 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:30e47394-25fd-4d23-a707-5981ecc2e47d/datastream/OBJ/view