Brachyspira hyodysenteriae is commonly associated with swine
dysentery (SD), a disease that has an economic impact on the swine industry. B. hyodysenteriae
infection results in changes to the colonic mucus niche with massive mucus induction, which substantially increases the number of B. hyodysenteriae binding sites in the mucus. We previously determined that a B. hyodysenteriae strain binds to colon
mucins in a manner that differs between pigs and
mucin types. Here, we investigated if adhesion to
mucins is a trait observed across a broad set of B. hyodysenteriae strains and isolates and furthermore at a genus level (B. innocens, B. pilosicoli, B. murdochii, B. hampsonii, and B. intermedia strains). Our results show that binding to
mucins appears to be specific to B. hyodysenteriae, and within this species, the binding ability to
mucins varies between strains/isolates, increases for
mucins from pigs with SD, and is associated with
sialic acid epitopes on
mucins.
Infection with B. hyodysenteriae strain 8dII results in
mucin glycosylation changes in the colon, including a shift in
sialic acid-containing structures. Thus, we demonstrate through hierarchical cluster analysis and orthogonal projections to latent structures discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) models of the relative abundances of
sialic acid-containing
glycans that
sialic acid-containing structures in the
mucin O-glycome are good predictors of B. hyodysenteriae strain 8dII
infection in pigs. The results emphasize the role of
sialic acids in governing B. hyodysenteriae interactions with its host, which may open perspectives for therapeutic strategies.