Abstract:
The regions of the gastrointestinal tract that are densely colonized by bacteria secrete mucus that stains as sulfomucus. A body of evidence suggests that the sulfation of mucins is protective against degradation by bacteria, and desulfation is one of the important rate-limiting steps in mucin degradation (1). Bacterial sulfatases that carry out mucin desulfation have been described, but undoubtedly a group of such enzymes will be discovered with distinctive specificities for the differently sulfated sugars found in mucins, and a combination of such enzymes will be required to completely desulfate mucins.