{"id":1046,"date":"2025-06-16T10:04:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T14:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/?page_id=1046"},"modified":"2025-08-05T16:03:59","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T20:03:59","slug":"bovatus","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/research\/bovatus\/","title":{"rendered":"Capsular Polysaccharide Biosyntheic Enzymes from Bacteroides ovatus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/research\/#reslist\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"119\">Return to Main Research Page<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Bacteroides<\/em>&nbsp;are a major constituent of the gut microbiome of industrialized human populations. One of the most commonly detected species is&nbsp;<em>Bacteroides ovatus<\/em>. It has been linked to benefits like the suppression of intestinal inflammation but is also correlated with some autoimmune disorders. For example an overabundance of gut microbe&nbsp;<em>Bacteroides ovatus<\/em>&nbsp;has been observed in the autoimmune disorders systemic lupus erythematosus, Crohn\u2019s disease, type I diabetes, irritable bowel disorder (IBD), and celiac disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bacterial cell surface carbohydrates, like capsular polysaccharides (CPS), may play a role in modulating these varied host interactions. CPS form part of the outer capsule, protecting the expressing bacterium from environmental stressors such as antibiotics. Additionally, CPS are known to have an immunomodulatory effect on the host, which may explain their link to autoimmune diseases.  Recent studies have begun to explore the diversity of CPS loci in&nbsp;<em>Bacteroides<\/em>; however, there is still much unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our research will provide further understanding of CPS in&nbsp;<em>B. ovatus<\/em>&nbsp;through characterization of&nbsp;proteins from&nbsp;biosynthetic loci, as they may be of interest for developing new therapies.<span style=\"color: #ffffff\">.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Project Milesones<\/strong>:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">June 2025: <\/span><\/strong>Collected several new BoPDA structures at ALS!<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">May 2025:<\/span><\/strong> Thesis students Lydia Freedman &#8217;25 and Salih Awouda &#8217;25 present their research at the regional ACS meeting: <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/files\/2025\/08\/IMG_1876-2-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1126\" style=\"width:488px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/files\/2025\/08\/IMG_1876-2-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/files\/2025\/08\/IMG_1876-2-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/files\/2025\/08\/IMG_1876-2-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/files\/2025\/08\/IMG_1876-2-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/files\/2025\/08\/IMG_1876-2-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/files\/2025\/08\/IMG_1876-2-285x214.jpg 285w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">December 2024<\/span><\/strong>: The paper about BoPDA was accepted to <a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/journal\/bichaw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Biochemistry<\/a>!! <a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/10.1021\/acs.biochem.4c00519\">https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/10.1021\/acs.biochem.4c00519<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">August 2024:<\/span> <\/strong>We deposited four new structures of <em>Bacteroides ovatus<\/em> polysaccharide deacetylase (BoPDA) to the PDB! <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">October 2021:<\/span><\/strong> Collected 1st high resolution crystallographic data set of BoPDA at ALS at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab! <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"875\" height=\"656\" src=\"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/files\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-21-at-12.33.34-PM-edited.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-987\" style=\"object-fit:cover;width:1000px;height:497px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/files\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-21-at-12.33.34-PM-edited.png 875w, https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/files\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-21-at-12.33.34-PM-edited-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/files\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-21-at-12.33.34-PM-edited-768x576.png 768w, https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/files\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-21-at-12.33.34-PM-edited-285x214.png 285w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 875px) 100vw, 875px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Project Citations <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">(<strong>*<\/strong> denotes Vassar College Undergraduate)<\/span>:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Schwartz L.A.*, Norman J.O.*, Hasan S.*, Adamek O.E.*, Dzuong E.*, Lowenstein J.C.*, Yost O.G.*, <\/strong>Sankaran B., McLaughlin K.J. \u201cCarbohydrate Deacetylase Unique to Gut Microbe Bacteroides Reveals Atypical Structure\u201d<em>. Biochemistry. <\/em>2025 Jan 7;64(1):180-191. (Epub 2024. Dec 11.) Pubmed PMID: 39663570.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/research\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"119\">Return to Main Research Page<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Return to Main Research Page Bacteroides&nbsp;are a major constituent of the gut microbiome of industrialized human populations. One of the most commonly detected species is&nbsp;Bacteroides ovatus. It has been linked to benefits like the suppression of intestinal inflammation but is also correlated with some autoimmune disorders. For example an overabundance of gut microbe&nbsp;Bacteroides ovatus&nbsp;has been <a href=\"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/research\/bovatus\/\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"sr-only\">Read more about Capsular Polysaccharide Biosyntheic Enzymes from Bacteroides ovatus<\/span>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7374,"featured_media":0,"parent":119,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1046","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7374"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1046"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1131,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1046\/revisions\/1131"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/kmclaughlin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}