Dual roles of host N-glycosylation in enteropathogenic Escherichia coli infection.

Host N-glycosylation is essential for E. coli infection, facilitating adhesion and secretion system activity through two distinct pathways.

• Why it matters: Understanding host genes that enable EPEC infection fills a critical knowledge gap and could lead to targeted therapies for enteric diseases.
• What they did: Two independent CRISPR-Cas9 screens identified N-glycosylation as crucial, with experiments showing that inhibiting N-glycan maturation disrupts bacterial adhesion and secretion functions.
• The result: Findings reveal that N-glycan maturation is a key host pathway exploited during infection, influencing bacterial attachment and tissue tropism, and offering potential intervention points.