The bacterial toolkit for glycan recognition in the human gut

The bacterial community of the gut microbiome utilizes dietary and host-derived glycans as nutrients, impacting human nutrition, immune system regulation and mechanisms of pathology. To orchestrate the breakdown of complex glycans, gut bacteria hold complete polysaccharide utilization systems with substrate-specific sets of enzymes and non-catalytic glycan-binding proteins for glycan degradation and recognition. This chapter highlights recent examples of glycan-binding proteins that target gut-derived glycans and integrates the molecular complexity of these systems with the impact for the host. The ligand-binding diversity and fine-tunability of these microbiome glycan-binding proteins are also envisioned to leverage their use as molecular tools for diagnosis and therapeutics.