Figure 11. Imaging bacterial glycans via fluorescent polyisoprenoids.

A) Bacterial polyisoprenoids act as lipid carriers upon which glycosyltransferases (GTs) construct higher order glycans, including polysaccharides. They are critical for biosynthesis of a number of glycans. B) A fluorescent reporter can be metabolically incorporated into bacterial polyisoprenoids to monitor glycan assembly steps and characterize glycosyltransferase activities. Glycans at different stages during biosynthesis can be imaged. C) Example of an imaging probe which consists of the fluorescent reporter 2-nitrileaniline appended to bactoprenyl phosphate. Figure adapted from Scott et al.¹⁶¹ Abbreviations: Ac = acetyl; Pyr = pyruvyl; 2CNA-B(nZ)P = 2-nitrileanilinobactoprenyl phosphate.