What Has Been Achieved:

A high-impact publication in Nature Microbiology revealing the glycan composition of the Lyme disease spirochaete Borrelia burgdorferi’s cell wall. The GlycoMIP User Facility at Virginia Tech supported the research of Dr. Brandon Jutras, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at Virginia Tech and frontier researcher in understanding, detecting and eradicating Lyme disease. This article is ranked in the top 5% of all science publications with similar publication dates, indicating the importance and relevance of this research.

Importance of the Achievement:

The bacterial cell wall, composed of glycans cross-linked with flexible peptides, is universal across bacterial taxa and imposes biophysical limits on cell shape, flexibility, and motility. Although alterations in the peptide chemistry occur across the bacterial domain, deviations from the β-(1–4)-linked GlcNAc–MurNAc disaccharide have not been previously reported. This research publication addresses the cell wall composition of the Lyme disease causative agent, Borrelia Burgdorferi, and describes a unique glycan composition that imparts dramatic biophysical changes in cell wall flexibility, elasticity and shape, which are ultimately reflected in bacterial motility and survival. These unique cell wall structures can be considered targets for detection and treatment of infection by this spirochaete.

Unique Feature(s) of the MIP that Enabled this Achievement:

The GlycoMIP User Facility at Virginia Tech has access to state-of-the-art Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry instruments, allowing for precision separation and characterization of the glycan structures purified from the spirochaete’s cell wall. GlycoMIP resources are presently in use to purify and synthesize these novel bacterial glycomaterials for developing methods of Lyme Disease detection and prevention.