Affinity maturation generates greatly improved xyloglucan-specific carbohydrate binding modules

Identification and expression analysis of the Xyloglucan transglycosylase/hydrolase (XTH) gene family under abiotic stress in oilseed (Brassica napus L.)

XTH genes are key genes that regulate the hydrolysis and recombination of XG components and plays role in the structure and composition of plant cell walls. Therefore, clarifying the changes that occur in XTHs during plant defense against abiotic stresses is informative for the study of the plant stress regulatory mechanism mediated by plant cell wall signals. XTH proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana was selected as the seed sequences in combination with its protein structural domains, 80 members of the BnXTH gene family were jointly identified from the whole genome of the Brassica napus ZS11, and analyzed for their encoded protein physicochemical properties, phylogenetic relationships, covariance relationships, and interoperating miRNAs. Based on the transcriptome data, the expression patterns of BnXTHs were analyzed in response to different abiotic stress treatments. The relative expression levels of some BnXTH genes under Al, alkali, salt, and drought treatments after 0, 6, 12 and 24 h were analyzed by using qRT-PCR to explore their roles in abiotic stress tolerance in B. napus. BnXTHs showed different expression patterns in response to different abiotic stress signals, indicating that the response mechanisms of oilseed rape against different abiotic stresses are also different. This paper provides a theoretical basis for clarifying the function and molecular genetic mechanism of the BnXTH gene family in abiotic stress tolerance in rapeseed.

Comparative transcriptome analysis revealed that auxin and cell wall biosynthesis play important roles in the formation of hollow hearts in cucumber

BACKGROUND

Hollow heart is a kind of physiological defect that seriously affects the yield, quality, and economic value of cucumber. However, the formation of hollow hearts may relate to multiple factors in cucumber, and it is necessary to conduct analysis.

RESULTS

In this study, hollow and non-hollow fruits of cucumber K07 were used for comparative transcriptome sequencing and analysis. 253 differentially expressed genes and 139 transcription factors were identified as being associated with the formation of hollow hearts. Hormone (auxin) signaling and cell wall biosynthesis were mainly enriched in GO and KEGG pathways. Expression levels of key genes involved in indole-3-acetic acid biosynthesis in carpel were lower in the hollow fruits than non-hollow fruits, while there was no difference in the flesh. The concentration of indole-3-acetic also showed lower in the carpel than flesh. The biosynthetic pathway and content analysis of the main components of the cell wall found that lignin biosynthesis had obvious regularity with hollow heart, followed by hemicellulose and cellulose. Correlation analysis showed that there may be an interaction between auxin and cell wall biosynthesis, and they collectively participate in the formation of hollow hearts in cucumber. Among the differentially expressed transcription factors, MYB members were the most abundant, followed by NAC, ERF, and bHLH.

CONCLUSIONS

The results and analyses showed that the low content of auxin in the carpel affected the activity of enzymes related to cell wall biosynthesis at the early stage of fruit development, resulting in incomplete development of carpel cells, thus forming a hollow heart in cucumber. Some transcription factors may play regulatory roles in this progress. The results may enrich the theory of the formation of hollow hearts and provide a basis for future research.

Comparison of Trichoderma longibrachiatum Xyloglucanase Production Using Tamarind (Tamarindus indica) and Jatoba (Hymenaea courbaril) Seeds: Factorial Design and Immobilization on Ionic Supports

Xyloglucan (XG) is the predominant hemicellulose in the primary cell wall of superior plants. It has a fundamental role in controlling the stretching and expansion of the plant cell wall. There are five types of enzymes known to cleave the linear chain of xyloglucan, and the most well-known is xyloglucanase (XEG). The immobilization process can be used to solve problems related to stability, besides the economic benefits brought by the possibility of its repeated use and recovery. Therefore, this study aims at the optimization of the xyloglucanase production of Trichoderma longibrachiatum using a central composite rotatable design (CCRD) with tamarind and jatoba seeds as carbon sources, as well as XEG immobilization on ionic supports, such as MANAE (monoamine-N-aminoethyl), DEAE (diethylaminoethyl)-cellulose, CM (carboxymethyl)-cellulose, and PEI (polyethyleneimine). High concentrations of carbon sources (1.705%), at a temperature of 30 °C and under agitation for 72 h, were the most favorable conditions for the XEG activity from T. longibrachiatum with respect to both carbon sources. However, the tamarind seeds showed 23.5% higher activity compared to the jatoba seeds. Therefore, this carbon source was chosen to continue the experiments. The scaling up from Erlenmeyer flasks to the bioreactor increased the XEG activity 1.27-fold (1.040 ± 0.088 U/mL). Regarding the biochemical characterization of the crude extract, the optimal temperature range was 50–55 °C, and the optimal pH was 5.0. Regarding the stabilities with respect to pH and temperature, XEG was not stable for prolonged periods, which was crucial to immobilizing it on ionic resins. XEG showed the best immobilization efficiency on CM-cellulose and DEAE-cellulose, with activities of 1.16 and 0.89 U/g of the derivative (enzyme plus support), respectively. This study describes, for the first time in the literature, the immobilization of a fungal xyloglucanase using these supports.

Strategies and Tactics for the Development of Selective Glycan-Binding Proteins

The influences of glycans impact all biological processes, disease states, and pathogenic interactions. Glycan-binding proteins (GBPs), such as lectins, are decisive tools for interrogating glycan structure and function because of their ease of use and ability to selectively bind defined carbohydrate epitopes and glycosidic linkages. GBP reagents are prominent tools for basic research, clinical diagnostics, therapeutics, and biotechnological applications. However, the study of glycans is hindered by the lack of specific and selective protein reagents to cover the massive diversity of carbohydrate structures that exist in nature. In addition, existing GBP reagents often suffer from low affinity or broad specificity, complicating data interpretation. There have been numerous efforts to expand the GBP toolkit beyond those identified from natural sources through protein engineering, to improve the properties of existing GBPs or to engineer novel specificities and potential applications. This review details the current scope of proteins that bind carbohydrates and the engineering methods that have been applied to enhance the affinity, selectivity, and specificity of binders.

Current and future advances in fluorescence-based visualization of plant cell wall components and cell wall biosynthetic machineries

Plant cell wall-derived biomass serves as a renewable source of energy and materials with increasing importance. The cell walls are biomacromolecular assemblies defined by a fine arrangement of different classes of polysaccharides, proteoglycans, and aromatic polymers and are one of the most complex structures in Nature. One of the most challenging tasks of cell biology and biomass biotechnology research is to image the structure and organization of this complex matrix, as well as to visualize the compartmentalized, multiplayer biosynthetic machineries that build the elaborate cell wall architecture. Better knowledge of the plant cells, cell walls, and whole tissue is essential for bioengineering efforts and for designing efficient strategies of industrial deconstruction of the cell wall-derived biomass and its saccharification. Cell wall-directed molecular probes and analysis by light microscopy, which is capable of imaging with a high level of specificity, little sample processing, and often in real time, are important tools to understand cell wall assemblies. This review provides a comprehensive overview about the possibilities for fluorescence label-based imaging techniques and a variety of probing methods, discussing both well-established and emerging tools. Examples of applications of these tools are provided. We also list and discuss the advantages and limitations of the methods. Specifically, we elaborate on what are the most important considerations when applying a particular technique for plants, the potential for future development, and how the plant cell wall field might be inspired by advances in the biomedical and general cell biology fields.

Identification of two functional xyloglucan galactosyltransferase homologs BrMUR3 and BoMUR3 in brassicaceous vegetables

Xyloglucan (XyG) is the predominant hemicellulose in the primary cell walls of most dicotyledonous plants. Current models of these walls predict that XyG interacts with cellulose microfibrils to provide the wall with the rigidity and strength necessary to maintain cell integrity. Remodeling of this network is required to allow cell elongation and plant growth. In this study, homologs of Arabidopsis thaliana MURUS3 (MUR3), which encodes a XyG-specific galactosyltransferase, were obtained from Brassica rapa (BrMUR3) to Brassica oleracea (BoMUR3). Genetic complementation showed that BrMUR3 and BoMUR3 rescue the phenotypic defects of the mur3-3 mutant. Xyloglucan subunit composition analysis provided evidence that BrMUR3 and BoMUR3 encode a galactosyltransferase, which transfers a galactose residue onto XyG chains. The detection of XXFG and XLFG XyG subunits (restoration of fucosylated side chains) in mur3-3 mutants overexpressing BrMUR3 or BoMUR3 show that MUR3 from Brassica to Arabidopsis are comparable as they add Gal to the third xylosyl residue of the XXXG subunit. Our results provide additional information for functional dissection and evolutionary analysis of MUR3 genes derived from brassicaceous species.

Advances in molecular engineering of carbohydrate-binding modules

Carbohydrate-binding modules (CBMs) are non-catalytic domains that are generally appended to carbohydrate-active enzymes. CBMs have a broadly conserved structure that allows recognition of a notable variety of carbohydrates, in both their soluble and insoluble forms, as well as in their alpha and beta conformations and with different types of bonds or substitutions. This versatility suggests a high functional plasticity that is not yet clearly understood, in spite of the important number of studies relating protein structure and function. Several studies have explored the flexibility of these systems by changing or improving their specificity toward substrates of interest. In this review, we examine the molecular strategies used to identify CBMs with novel or improved characteristics. The impact of the spatial arrangement of the functional amino acids of CBMs is discussed in terms of unexpected new functions that are not related to the original biological roles of the enzymes. Proteins 2017; 85:1602-1617. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

DGE-seq analysis of MUR3-related Arabidopsis mutants provides insight into how dysfunctional xyloglucan affects cell elongation

Our previous study of the Arabidopsis mur3-3 mutant and mutant plants in which the mur3-3 phenotypes are suppressed (xxt2mur3-3, xxt5mur3-3, xxt1xxt2mur3-3 and 35Spro:XLT2:mur3-3) showed that hypocotyl cell elongation is decreased in plants that synthesize galactose-deficient xyloglucan. To obtain genome-wide insight into the transcriptome changes and regulatory networks that may be involved in this decreased elongation, we performed digital gene expression analyses of the etiolated hypocotyls of wild type (WT), mur3-3 and the four suppressor lines. Numerous differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were detected in comparisons between WT and mur3-3 (1423), xxt2mur3-3 and mur3-3 (675), xxt5mur3-3 and mur3-3 (1272), xxt1xxt2mur3-3 and mur3-3 (1197) and 35Spro:XLT2:mur3-3 vs mur3-3 (121). 550 overlapped DEGs were detected among WT vs mur3-3, xxt2mur3-3 vs mur3-3, xxt5mur3-3 vs mur3-3, and xxt1xxt2mur3-3 vs mur3-3 comparisons. These DEGs include 46 cell wall-related genes, 24 transcription factors, 6 hormone-related genes, 9 protein kinase genes and 9 aquaporin genes. The expression of all of the 550 overlapped genes is restored to near wild-type levels in the four mur3-3 suppressor lines. qRT-PCR of fifteen of these 550 genes showed that their expression levels are consistent with the digital gene expression data. Overexpression of some of these genes (XTH4, XTH30, PME3, EXPA11, MYB88, ROT3, AT5G37790, WAG2 and TIP2;3) that are down-regulated in mur3-3 partially rescued the short hypocotyl phenotype but not the aerial phenotype of mur3-3, indicating that different mechanisms exist between hypocotyl cell elongation and leaf cell elongation.

The functional properties of a xyloglucanase (GH12) of Aspergillus terreus expressed in Aspergillus nidulans may increase performance of biomass degradation

Filamentous fungi are attractive hosts for heterologous protein expression due to their capacity to secrete large amounts of enzymes into the extracellular medium. Xyloglucanases, which specifically hydrolyze xyloglucan, have been recently applied in lignocellulosic biomass degradation and conversion in many other industrial processes. In this context, this work aimed to clone, express, and determine the functional properties of a recombinant xyloglucanase (AtXEG12) from Aspergillus terreus, and also its solid-state (SSF) and submerged (SmF) fermentation in bioreactors. The purified AtXEG12 showed optimum pH and temperature of 5.5 and 65 °C, respectively, demonstrating to be 90 % stable after 24 h of incubation at 50 °C. AtXEG12 activity increased in the presence of 2-mercaptoethanol (65 %) and Zn⁺² (45 %), while Cu⁺² and Ag⁺ ions drastically decreased its activity. A substrate assay showed, for the first time for this enzyme's family, xylanase activity. The enzyme exhibited high specificity for tamarind xyloglucan (K _M 1.2 mg mL^-1) and V _max of 17.4 μmol min^-1 mg^-1 of protein. The capillary zone electrophoresis analysis revealed that AtXEG12 is an endo-xyloglucanase. The heterologous xyloglucanase secretion was greater than the production by wild-type A. terreus cultivated in SmF. On the other hand, AtXEG12 activity reached by SSF was sevenfold higher than values achieved by SmF, showing that the expression of recombinant enzymes can be significantly improved by cultivation under SSF.

Immunological Approaches to Biomass Characterization and Utilization

Plant biomass is the major renewable feedstock resource for sustainable generation of alternative transportation fuels to replace fossil carbon-derived fuels. Lignocellulosic cell walls are the principal component of plant biomass. Hence, a detailed understanding of plant cell wall structure and biosynthesis is an important aspect of bioenergy research. Cell walls are dynamic in their composition and structure, varying considerably among different organs, cells, and developmental stages of plants. Hence, tools are needed that are highly efficient and broadly applicable at various levels of plant biomass-based bioenergy research. The use of plant cell wall glycan-directed probes has seen increasing use over the past decade as an excellent approach for the detailed characterization of cell walls. Large collections of such probes directed against most major cell wall glycans are currently available worldwide. The largest and most diverse set of such probes consists of cell wall glycan-directed monoclonal antibodies (McAbs). These McAbs can be used as immunological probes to comprehensively monitor the overall presence, extractability, and distribution patterns among cell types of most major cell wall glycan epitopes using two mutually complementary immunological approaches, glycome profiling (an in vitro platform) and immunolocalization (an in situ platform). Significant progress has been made recently in the overall understanding of plant biomass structure, composition, and modifications with the application of these immunological approaches. This review focuses on such advances made in plant biomass analyses across diverse areas of bioenergy research.

Neutron crystallographic studies reveal hydrogen bond and water-mediated interactions between a carbohydrate-binding module and its bound carbohydrate ligand

Carbohydrate-binding modules (CBMs) are key components of many carbohydrate-modifying enzymes. CBMs affect the activity of these enzymes by modulating bonding and catalysis. To further characterize and study CBM-ligand binding interactions, neutron crystallographic studies of an engineered family 4-type CBM in complex with a branched xyloglucan ligand were conducted. The first neutron crystal structure of a CBM-ligand complex reported here shows numerous atomic details of hydrogen bonding and water-mediated interactions and reveals the charged state of key binding cleft amino acid side chains.

Bioinspired assemblies of plant cell wall polymers unravel the affinity properties of carbohydrate-binding modules

Lignocellulose-acting enzymes play a central role in the biorefinery of plant biomass to make fuels, chemicals and materials. These enzymes are often appended to carbohydrate binding modules (CBMs) that promote substrate targeting. When used in plant materials, which are complex assemblies of polymers, the binding properties of CBMs can be difficult to understand and predict, thus limiting the efficiency of enzymes. In order to gain more information on the binding properties of CBMs, some bioinspired model assemblies that contain some of the polymers and covalent interactions found in the plant cell walls have been designed. The mobility of three engineered CBMs has been investigated by FRAP in these assemblies, while varying the parameters related to the polymer concentration, the physical state of assemblies and the oligomerization state of CBMs. The features controlling the mobility of the CBMs in the assemblies have been quantified and hierarchized. We demonstrate that the parameters can have additional or opposite effects on mobility, depending on the CBM tested. We also find evidence of a relationship between the mobility of CBMs and their binding strength. Overall, bioinspired assemblies are able to reveal the unique features of affinity of CBMs. In particular, the results show that oligomerization of CBMs and the presence of ferulic acid motifs in the assemblies play an important role in the binding affinity of CBMs. Thus we propose that these features should be finely tuned when CBMs are used in plant cell walls to optimise bioprocesses.

Characterization of the substitution pattern of cellulose derivatives using carbohydrate-binding modules

BACKGROUND

Derivatized celluloses, such as methylcellulose (MC) and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), are of pharmaceutical importance and extensively employed in tablet matrices. Each batch of derivatized cellulose is thoroughly characterized before utilized in tablet formulations as batch-to-batch differences can affect drug release. The substitution pattern of the derivatized cellulose polymers, i.e. the mode on which the substituent groups are dispersed along the cellulose backbone, can vary from batch-to-batch and is a factor that can influence drug release.

RESULTS

In the present study an analytical approach for the characterization of the substitution pattern of derivatized celluloses is presented, which is based on the use of carbohydrate-binding modules (CBMs) and affinity electrophoresis. CBM4-2 from Rhodothermus marinus xylanase 10A is capable of distinguishing between batches of derivatized cellulose with different substitution patterns. This is demonstrated by a higher migration retardation of the CBM in acrylamide gels containing batches of MC and HPMC with a more heterogeneous distribution pattern.

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that CBMs have the potential to characterize the substitution pattern of cellulose derivatives and anticipate that with use of CBMs with a very selective recognition capacity it will be possible to more extensively characterize and standardize important carbohydrates used for instance in tablet formulation.

Carbohydrate binding module recognition of xyloglucan defined by polar contacts with branching xyloses and CH-Π interactions

Engineering of novel carbohydrate-binding proteins that can be utilized in various biochemical and biotechnical applications would benefit from a deeper understanding of the biochemical interactions that determine protein-carbohydrate specificity. In an effort to understand further the basis for specificity we present the crystal structure of the multi-specific carbohydrate-binding module (CBM) X-2 L110F bound to a branched oligomer of xyloglucan (XXXG). X-2 L110F is an engineered CBM that can recognize xyloglucan, xylans and β-glucans. The structural observations of the present study compared with previously reported structures of X-2 L110F in complex with linear oligomers, show that the π-surface of a phenylalanine, F110, allows for interactions with hydrogen atoms on both linear (xylopentaose and cellopentaose) and branched ligands (XXXG). Furthermore, X-2 L110F is shown to have a relatively flexible binding cleft, as illustrated in binding to XXXG. This branched ligand requires a set of reorientations of protein side chains Q72, N31, and R142, although these residues have previously been determined as important for binding to xylose oligomers by mediating polar contacts. The loss of these polar contacts is compensated for in binding to XXXG by polar interactions mediated by other protein residues, T74, R115, and Y149, which interact mainly with the branching xyloses of the xyloglucan oligomer. Taken together, the present study illustrates in structural detail how CH-π interactions can influence binding specificity and that flexibility is a key feature for the multi-specificity displayed by X-2 L110F, allowing for the accommodation of branched ligands.

A discrete genetic locus confers xyloglucan metabolism in select human gut Bacteroidetes

A well-balanced human diet includes a significant intake of non-starch polysaccharides, collectively termed 'dietary fibre', from the cell walls of diverse fruits and vegetables. Owing to the paucity of alimentary enzymes encoded by the human genome, our ability to derive energy from dietary fibre depends on the saccharification and fermentation of complex carbohydrates by the massive microbial community residing in our distal gut. The xyloglucans (XyGs) are a ubiquitous family of highly branched plant cell wall polysaccharides whose mechanism(s) of degradation in the human gut and consequent importance in nutrition have been unclear. Here we demonstrate that a single, complex gene locus in Bacteroides ovatus confers XyG catabolism in this common colonic symbiont. Through targeted gene disruption, biochemical analysis of all predicted glycoside hydrolases and carbohydrate-binding proteins, and three-dimensional structural determination of the vanguard endo-xyloglucanase, we reveal the molecular mechanisms through which XyGs are hydrolysed to component monosaccharides for further metabolism. We also observe that orthologous XyG utilization loci (XyGULs) serve as genetic markers of XyG catabolism in Bacteroidetes, that XyGULs are restricted to a limited number of phylogenetically diverse strains, and that XyGULs are ubiquitous in surveyed human metagenomes. Our findings reveal that the metabolism of even highly abundant components of dietary fibre may be mediated by niche species, which has immediate fundamental and practical implications for gut symbiont population ecology in the context of human diet, nutrition and health.

The sweet and sour of serological glycoprotein tumor biomarker quantification

Aberrant and dysregulated protein glycosylation is a well-established event in the process of oncogenesis and cancer progression. Years of study on the glycobiology of cancer have been focused on the development of clinically viable diagnostic applications of this knowledge. However, for a number of reasons, there has been only sparse and varied success. The causes of this range from technical to biological issues that arise when studying protein glycosylation and attempting to apply it to practical applications. This review focuses on the pitfalls, advances, and future directions to be taken in the development of clinically applicable quantitative assays using glycan moieties from serum-based proteins as analytes. Topics covered include the development and progress of applications of lectins, mass spectrometry, and other technologies towards this purpose. Slowly but surely, novel applications of established and development of new technologies will eventually provide us with the tools to reach the ultimate goal of quantification of the full scope of heterogeneity associated with the glycosylation of biomarker candidate glycoproteins in a clinically applicable fashion.

Group III-A XTH genes of Arabidopsis encode predominant xyloglucan endohydrolases that are dispensable for normal growth

The molecular basis of primary wall extension endures as one of the central enigmas in plant cell morphogenesis. Classical cell wall models suggest that xyloglucan endo-transglycosylase activity is the primary catalyst (together with expansins) of controlled cell wall loosening through the transient cleavage and religation of xyloglucan-cellulose cross links. The genome of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) contains 33 phylogenetically diverse XYLOGLUCAN ENDO-TRANSGLYCOSYLASE/HYDROLASE (XTH) gene products, two of which were predicted to be predominant xyloglucan endohydrolases due to clustering into group III-A. Enzyme kinetic analysis of recombinant AtXTH31 confirmed this prediction and indicated that this enzyme had similar catalytic properties to the nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) xyloglucanase1 responsible for storage xyloglucan hydrolysis during germination. Global analysis of Genevestigator data indicated that AtXTH31 and the paralogous AtXTH32 were abundantly expressed in expanding tissues. Microscopy analysis, utilizing the resorufin β-glycoside of the xyloglucan oligosaccharide XXXG as an in situ probe, indicated significant xyloglucan endohydrolase activity in specific regions of both roots and hypocotyls, in good correlation with transcriptomic data. Moreover, this hydrolytic activity was essentially completely eliminated in AtXTH31/AtXTH32 double knockout lines. However, single and double knockout lines, as well as individual overexpressing lines, of AtXTH31 and AtXTH32 did not demonstrate significant growth or developmental phenotypes. These results suggest that although xyloglucan polysaccharide hydrolysis occurs in parallel with primary wall expansion, morphological effects are subtle or may be compensated by other mechanisms. We hypothesize that there is likely to be an interplay between these xyloglucan endohydrolases and recently discovered apoplastic exo-glycosidases in the hydrolytic modification of matrix xyloglucans.

Versatile high resolution oligosaccharide microarrays for plant glycobiology and cell wall research

Microarrays are powerful tools for high throughput analysis, and hundreds or thousands of molecular interactions can be assessed simultaneously using very small amounts of analytes. Nucleotide microarrays are well established in plant research, but carbohydrate microarrays are much less established, and one reason for this is a lack of suitable glycans with which to populate arrays. Polysaccharide microarrays are relatively easy to produce because of the ease of immobilizing large polymers noncovalently onto a variety of microarray surfaces, but they lack analytical resolution because polysaccharides often contain multiple distinct carbohydrate substructures. Microarrays of defined oligosaccharides potentially overcome this problem but are harder to produce because oligosaccharides usually require coupling prior to immobilization. We have assembled a library of well characterized plant oligosaccharides produced either by partial hydrolysis from polysaccharides or by de novo chemical synthesis. Once coupled to protein, these neoglycoconjugates are versatile reagents that can be printed as microarrays onto a variety of slide types and membranes. We show that these microarrays are suitable for the high throughput characterization of the recognition capabilities of monoclonal antibodies, carbohydrate-binding modules, and other oligosaccharide-binding proteins of biological significance and also that they have potential for the characterization of carbohydrate-active enzymes.

Glyco-biosensors: recent advances and applications for the detection of free and bound carbohydrates

The field of biosensor development now encompasses several areas specifically geared toward the rapid and sensitive detection, identification, and quantification of target analytes. In contrast to the more mature research and development of nucleic acid and protein biosensors, the development of 'glyco-biosensors' for detecting carbohydrates and conjugates of carbohydrates (glycoconjugates) is at a relatively nascent stage. The application of glyco-biosensors aims to open novel analytical and diagnostic avenues, encompassing industrial bioprocesses, biomedical and clinical applications. This area of research has been greatly aided by advancement brought by interdisciplinary mergers of engineering, biology, chemistry and physical sciences and enabling the miniaturization of detection platforms. In this review, we briefly introduce the need for glyco-biosensors, discuss current analytical technologies, and examine advances in glyco-biosensor approaches aimed at the detection and/or quantification of glycoconjugates or carbohydrates derived from glycoconjugates since 2005.

Phage display: concept, innovations, applications and future

Phage display is the technology that allows expression of exogenous (poly)peptides on the surface of phage particles. The concept is simple in principle: a library of phage particles expressing a wide diversity of peptides is used to select those that bind the desired target. The filamentous phage M13 is the most commonly used vector to create random peptide display libraries. Several methods including recombinant techniques have been developed to increase the diversity of the library. On the other extreme, libraries with various biases can be created for specific purposes. For instance, when the sequence of the peptide that binds the target is known, its affinity and selectivity can be increased by screening libraries created with limited mutagenesis of the peptide. Phage libraries are screened for binding to synthetic or native targets. The initial screening of library by basic biopanning has been extended to column chromatography including negative screening and competition between selected phage clones to identify high affinity ligands with greater target specificity. The rapid isolation of specific ligands by phage display is advantageous in many applications including selection of inhibitors for the active and allosteric sites of the enzymes, receptor agonists and antagonists, and G-protein binding modulatory peptides. Phage display has been used in epitope mapping and analysis of protein-protein interactions. The specific ligands isolated from phage libraries can be used in therapeutic target validation, drug design and vaccine development. Phage display can also be used in conjunction with other methods. The past innovations and those to come promise a bright future for this field.