Identification of an N-Acetylneuraminic Acid-Presenting Bacteria Isolated from a Healthy Human Microbiome

N-acetylneuraminic acid is the most abundant sialic acid (SA) in humans and is expressed as the terminal sugar on intestinal mucus glycans. Several pathogenic bacteria harvest and display host SA on their own surfaces to evade Siglec-mediated host immunity. While previous studies have identified bacterial enzymes associated with SA catabolism, no reported methods permit the selective labeling, tracking, and quantitation of SA-presenting microbes within complex multi-microbial systems. We combined metabolic labeling, click chemistry, metagenomic, and whole-genome sequencing to track and identify SA-presenting microbes from a cultured human fecal microbiome. We isolated a new strain of Escherichia coli that incorporates SA onto its own surface and encodes for the NanT, NeuA, and NeuS genes necessary for harvesting SA. Our method is applicable to the identification of SA-presenting bacteria from human, animal, and environmental microbiomes, as well as providing an entry point for the investigation of surface-expressed SA-associated structures.