Beyond the protein lattice: bacterial S-layer glycans - from structure to functional frontier

S-layers were long regarded as elegant but functionally inert molecular armor. The discovery, three decades ago, that the S-layer of Geobacillus stearothermophilus carries covalently attached glycans overturned this view and inaugurated a new chapter in bacterial cell biology. Since then, the field has expanded in taxonomic scope and mechanistic depth. Complex O-linked glycans have been characterized on bacterial S-layers across Gram-positive Firmicutes, including Paenibacillus alvei, commensal lactobacilli, and the nosocomial pathogen Clostridioides difficile, while the periodontal pathogen Tannerella forsythia has emerged as a landmark organism whose dual-species S-layer bears an O-linked decasaccharide containing terminal non-mammalian nonulosonic acid - a modification directly implicated in evasion of immune surveillance. What has emerged is a picture of remarkable functional versatility. S-layer glycans govern cell morphology, sporulation, epithelial adhesion, biofilm dynamics, and host immune recognition through pattern-recognition receptors, including DC-SIGN and Mincle. In terms of chemical complexity, they deploy an extraordinary repertoire of rare, taxonomically restricted monosaccharides - among them bacillosamine, pseudaminic acid, and 2,3-cyclophosphoryl-rhamnose - assembled through linkages exceeding the structural diversity of any eukaryotic glycan class. This modularity opens compelling avenues for glycosylation engineering: rewiring transferase specificity or swapping biosynthetic modules could tailor glycan composition for epitope display, self-assembling glyconanostructures, or targeted therapeutic carbohydrate delivery. Cryo-electron tomography and intact glycopeptide mass spectrometry are resolving glycan positioning at near-atomic resolution, while AlphaFold3 is modeling glycan-protein contacts driving lattice stabilization. S-layer glycans represent compelling targets for next-generation antimicrobials, mucosal vaccines, and precision bacteriocins. Their full biological and biotechnological repertoire remains to be uncovered.