Sialic Acids and Other Nonulosonic Acids

Amanda L. Lewis; Xi Chen; Ronald L. Schnaar; Ajit Varki

doi:10.1101/glycobiology.4e.15

Sialic Acids and Other Nonulosonic Acids

Review

In: Essentials of Glycobiology [Internet]. 4th edition. Cold Spring Harbor (NY): Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; 2022. Chapter 15.

Authors

Amanda L. Lewis, Xi Chen, Ronald L. Schnaar, Ajit Varki

Book Editors

Book Affiliations

¹ Distinguished Professor of Medicine and of Cellular & Molecular Medicine, Co-Director, Glycobiology Research and Training Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
² Professor of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Director, National Center for Functional Glycomics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
³ Distinguished Professor of Cellular & Molecular Medicine, Co-Director, Glycobiology Research and Training Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
⁴ Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Chair, Professor of Cell Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA
⁵ Sr. Eminent Scholar in Drug Discovery, Georgia Research Alliance William Henry Terry Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
⁶ Professor of Mycology, ETH Zürich, Institute of Microbiology, Department of Biology, Zürich, Switzerland
⁷ Distinguished Research Professor, Georgia Athletics Association Professor in Complex Carbohydrate Research, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
⁸ Endowed Chair and Professor, Yabumoto Department of Intractable Disease Research, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Immunology Frontier Research Center, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
⁹ Distinguished Professor of Molecular Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia and Principal Research Leader, Institute for Glycomics, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia
¹⁰ Professor and Eminent Scholar Emeritus, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
¹¹ Professor, Departments of Pharmacology and Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
¹² Director of Max-Planck-Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam, Germany, Professor, Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany

PMID: 35536973
Bookshelf ID: NBK579976
DOI: 10.1101/glycobiology.4e.15

Excerpt

Sialic acids (Sias) are abundant on vertebrate glycoproteins, glycolipids, and milk oligosaccharides, as well as on some microbial surface glycans, mediating diverse functional roles. Originally discovered within the Deuterostome lineage of animals and associated microbes, they are actually a subset of a more ancient family of α-keto acid monosaccharides with a 9-carbon backbone called nonulosonic acids (NulOs), which are also found in some Eubacteria and Archaea. Biosynthesis of all NulO-glycans requires the activation of NulO to a CMP-sugar, before the NulO is transferred to glycan acceptors. NulOs are remarkable for the number and the type of functional groups on one monosaccharide. Further complexity arises from various epimers, modifications, and diverse linkages to other glycans, making these molecules well-suited to carry information for glycan–protein, cell–cell, and pathogen–host recognition. NulOs are among the most rapidly evolving classes of monosaccharides in nature and exist in tremendous variety, particularly in the microbial world. Given their high density and widespread location on vertebrate cells, Sias also exert many functions via electronegative charge, such as repulsion of cell–cell interactions, protein stabilization, ion binding, and ion transport.

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