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. 2018 Feb 28;9:359. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.00359

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Copyright © 2018 Le, Park and Otto.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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The biofilm exopolysaccharide PIA/PNAG. The PIA biosynthetic locus includes the icaA gene, which codes for an N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) transferase, which adds GlcNAc residues to a growing poly-GlcNAc chain. IcaD assists in this function in an unknown way. The chain is then believed to be exported by IcaC, because in the absence of icaC, polymerization stops at chain lengths of about 10–20 GlcNAc units. IcaB is located at the extracellular cell surface and de-acetylates some of the GlcNAc units, introducing a positive charge in the polymer due to the then unmasked amino groups. This is necessary for PIA surface location (see electron microscopy picture on the right) and functionality in biofilm formation and immune evasion.