Bordetellae colonization oligosaccharide (b-Cool), a glycan crucial for nasal colonization
- Yang Su
- Maiya Callender
- Dylan Woolsey
- Joanna Zhu
- Colleen Sedney
- Mimi Thu Vu
- Jillian Masters
- Amanda Caulfield
- Kalyan Dewan
- Emily Gaskill
- Reilly Stevens
- Austin Joshua
- Christopher M. Evans
- John Glushka
- Evgeny Vinogradov
- Andrew Preston
- Thomas Krunkosky
- Maor Bar-Peled
- Eric T. Harvill
2025-09-03
Respiratory tract infections pose considerable global health challenges. Upper airway colonization is pivotal to these infections, including those caused by Bordetella species. We identified an oligosaccharide, bordetellae colonization oligosaccharide (b-Cool), crucial for early nasal colonization of Bordetella bronchiseptica . We characterized the structure of b-Cool by LC-MS and NMR and found that it is prevalent across a diverse range of bordetellae, including Bordetella pertussis , which causes whooping cough in humans. A B. bronchiseptica mutant lacking b-Cool (Δ b-Cool ) showed significantly delayed and decreased colonization in mouse nasopharynx and nasal epithelia, resulting in decreased transmission. The colonization defect of Δ b-Cool was rescued in mucin deficient mice, suggesting that b-Cool may facilitate colonization in the presence of airway mucins.