MICROBIAL GLYCOCONJUGATES

The surfaces of all microbes are 'sugar coated' with molecules such as lipopolysaccharides in Gram-negative bacteria, capsular polysaccharid es in bacteria, lipoarabinomannans in mycobacteria and lipophosphoglyc an in Leishmania. The basic structures of these glycoconjugates are kn own and, in the case of pathogens, they can function as virulence dete rminants. Recent publications have refined some of these structures an d have elucidated interesting genes and proteins responsible for their biosynthesis.