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Covalent modifications of polysaccharides in mycobacteria

Mycobacteria produce carbohydrates of exceptional structures that are covalently modified by unique substituents, whose functional characterization could expand our understanding of how mycobacteria adapt to their environment.

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Figure 1: A current perspective of the cell envelope of M. tuberculosis.
Figure 2: Details of the chemical modifications affecting arabinogalactan, lipomannan, and lipoarabinomannan in mycobacteria.
Figure 3: A workflow for studies of chemical modifications of mycobacterial polysaccharides.

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Acknowledgements

We thank P.J. Brennan for critical reading of the manuscript. Studies on the chemical modifications of mycobacterial carbohydrates in the authors' laboratory were supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants AI064798 and AI116525. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

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Correspondence to Mary Jackson.

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Angala, S., Palčeková, Z., Belardinelli, J. et al. Covalent modifications of polysaccharides in mycobacteria. Nat Chem Biol 14, 193–198 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.2571

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