EACH type of bacterium has a unique sugary coating, but this superficial sweetness carries a bitter message for any organism it infects. Now the offending sugars can be rapidly identified by a “fingerprinting” test.
The coating consists of more than 100 different sugars, known as surface glycans, which the bacterium can mask or display depending on whether it is invading a cell, dodging the immune system or communicating with other cells. Knowing which glycans are displayed and when could lead to ways of blocking and diagnosing infections, but has largely remained a mystery because the sugars are difficult to detect.…
