Bacterial synthesis of polysialic acid lactosides in recombinant Escherichia coli K-12
Bacterial polysialyltransferases (PSTs) are processive enzymes involved in the synthesis of polysialic capsular polysaccharides. They can also synthesize polysialic acid in vitro from disialylated and trisialylated lactoside acceptors, which are the carbohydrate moieties of GD3 and GT3 gangliosides, respectively. Here, we engineered a non-pathogenic Escherichia coli strain that overexpresses recombinant sialyltransferases and sialic acid synthesis genes and can convert an exogenous lactoside into polysialyl lactosides. Several PSTs were assayed for their ability to synthesize polysialyl lactosides in the recombinant strain...
Source: Glycobiology - August 7, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Richard, E., Buon, L., Drouillard, S., Fort, S., Priem, B. Tags: Original articles Source Type: research
Hexosamine biosynthesis in keratinocytes: roles of GFAT and GNPDA enzymes in the maintenance of UDP-GlcNAc content and hyaluronan synthesis
UDP-N-acetylglucosamine (UDP-GlcNAc) is a glucose metabolite with pivotal functions as a key substrate for the synthesis of glycoconjugates like hyaluronan, and as a metabolic sensor that controls cell functions through O-GlcNAc modification of intracellular proteins. However, little is known about the regulation of hexosamine biosynthesis that controls UDP-GlcNAc content. Four enzymes can catalyze the crucial starting point of the pathway, conversion of fructose-6-phosphate (Fru6P) to glucosamine-6-phosphate (GlcN6P): glutamine-fructose-6-phosphate aminotransferases (GFAT1 and 2) and glucosamine-6-phosphate deaminases (GN...
Source: Glycobiology - August 7, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Oikari, S., Makkonen, K., Deen, A. J., Tyni, I., Kärnä, R., Tammi, R. H., Tammi, M. I. Tags: Original articles Source Type: research
N-Arylacyl O-sulfonated aminoglycosides as novel inhibitors of human neutrophil elastase, cathepsin G and proteinase 3
The balance between neutrophil serine proteases (NSPs) and protease inhibitors (PIs) in the lung is a critical determinant for a number of chronic inflammatory lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cystic fibrosis and acute lung injury. During activation at inflammatory sites, excessive release of NSPs such as human neutrophil elastase (HNE), proteinase 3 (Pr3) and cathepsin G (CatG), leads to destruction of the lung matrix and continued propagation of acute inflammation. Under normal conditions, PIs counteract these effects by inactivating NSPs; however, in chronic inflammatory lung diseases, there ...
Source: Glycobiology - August 7, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Craciun, I., Fenner, A. M., Kerns, R. J. Tags: Original articles Source Type: research
Keratan sulfate glycosaminoglycan from chicken egg white
Keratan sulfate (KS) was isolated from chicken egg white in amounts corresponding to ~0.06 wt% (dry weight). This KS had a weight-average molecular weight of ~36–41 kDa with a polydispersity of ~1.3. The primary repeating unit present in chicken egg white KS was ->4) β-N-acetyl-6-O-sulfo-d-glucosamine (1 -> 3) β-d-galactose (1-> with some 6-O-sulfo galactose residues present. This KS was somewhat resistant to depolymerization using keratanase 1 but could be depolymerized efficiently through the use of reactive oxygen species generated using copper (II) and hydrogen peroxide. Of particular interest ...
Source: Glycobiology - August 7, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Fu, L., Sun, X., He, W., Cai, C., Onishi, A., Zhang, F., Linhardt, R. J., Liu, Z. Tags: Original articles Source Type: research
Insights on N-glycosylation of human haptoglobin and its association with cancers
Protein glycosylation is one of the most significant post-translation modifications and plays a critical role in various biological functions. Haptoglobin (Hp) is one of the acute-phase response proteins secreted by liver. Its glycosylation could be analyzed by many analytical techniques qualitatively and quantitatively. The glycosylation alterations of Hp are reported to be associated with different kinds of diseases. The main glycosylation alterations of Hp in cancer appear to be the presence of aberrantly fucosylated and sialylated structures as well as increased branching. In this mini review, we provided a brief overv...
Source: Glycobiology - August 7, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Zhang, S., Shang, S., Li, W., Qin, X., Liu, Y. Tags: Review Source Type: research
The contribution of Glycobiology to the Zika outbreak in the Americas
(Source: Glycobiology)
Source: Glycobiology - August 7, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Pomin, V. H. Tags: Letter to the Glyco-Forum Source Type: research
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Source: Glycobiology - August 7, 2016 Category: Biology Tags: Glyco-Forum Section Source Type: research
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Source: Glycobiology - August 7, 2016 Category: Biology Tags: Original articles Source Type: research
Editorial Board
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Source: Glycobiology - August 7, 2016 Category: Biology Tags: Original articles Source Type: research
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(Source: Glycobiology)
Source: Glycobiology - August 7, 2016 Category: Biology Tags: Original articles Source Type: research
O-Glycan analysis of cellobiohydrolase I from Neurospora crassa
We describe here the composition of the O-linked glycans on the Neurospora crassa cellobiohydrolase I (CBHI), which accounts for approximately 40% of the protein secreted by cells growing in the presence of cellulose. CBHI is O-glycosylated with six types of linear, and three types of branched, O-glycans containing approximately equal amounts of mannose and galactose. In addition to the classic fungal O-glycans with reducing end mannoses, we also identified reducing end galactoses which suggest the existence of a protein-O-galactosyltransferase in N. crassa. Because of the excellent genetic resources available for N. crass...
Source: Glycobiology - April 26, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Tang, S.-L., Bubner, P., Bauer, S., Somerville, C. R. Tags: Microbial Biology Source Type: research
Galectins are human milk glycan receptors
The biological recognition of human milk glycans (HMGs) is poorly understood. Because HMGs are rich in galactose we explored whether they might interact with human galectins, which bind galactose-containing glycans and are highly expressed in epithelial cells and other cell types. We screened a number of human galectins for their binding to HMGs on a shotgun glycan microarray consisting of 247 HMGs derived from human milk, as well as to a defined HMG microarray. Recombinant human galectins (hGal)-1, -3, -4, -7, -8 and -9 bound selectively to glycans, with each galectin recognizing a relatively unique binding motif; by cont...
Source: Glycobiology - April 26, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Noll, A. J., Gourdine, J.-P., Yu, Y., Lasanajak, Y., Smith, D. F., Cummings, R. D. Tags: Glycan Recognition Source Type: research
Kinetic analysis and molecular modeling of the inhibition mechanism of roneparstat (SST0001) on human heparanase
This study provides unique insights into the mode of action of roneparstat as well as clues of its interaction with heparanase at a molecular level, which could be exploited to design novel potential inhibitor molecules. (Source: Glycobiology)
Source: Glycobiology - April 26, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Pala, D., Rivara, S., Mor, M., Milazzo, F. M., Roscilli, G., Pavoni, E., Giannini, G. Tags: Computational Biology Source Type: research
Evolutionary history of the chitin synthases of eukaryotes
Chitin synthases are widespread among eukaryotes and known to have a complex evolutionary history in some of the groups. We have reconstructed the chitin synthase phylogeny using the most taxonomically comprehensive dataset currently available and have shown the presence of independently formed paralogous groups in oomycetes, ciliates, fungi, and all diatoms except raphid pennates. There were also two cases of horizontal gene transfer (HGT): transfer from fungus to early diatoms gave rise to diatom paralogous group, while transfer from raphid pennate diatom to Acantamoeba ancestor is, to our knowledge, restricted to a sing...
Source: Glycobiology - April 26, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Morozov, A. A., Likhoshway, Y. V. Tags: Computational Biology Source Type: research
Hypoxia induces NO-dependent release of heparan sulfate in fibroblasts from the Alzheimer mouse Tg2576 by activation of nitrite reduction
There is a functional relationship between the heparan sulfate proteoglycan glypican-1 and the amyloid precursor protein (APP) of Alzheimer disease. In wild-type mouse embryonic fibroblasts, expression and processing of the APP is required for endosome-to-nucleus translocation of anhydromannose-containing heparan sulfate released from S-nitrosylated glypican-1 by ascorbate-induced, nitrosothiol-catalyzed deaminative cleavage. In fibroblasts from the transgenic Alzheimer mouse Tg2576, there is increased processing of the APP to amyloid-β peptides. Simultaneously, there is spontaneous formation of anhydromannose-contain...
Source: Glycobiology - April 26, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Cheng, F., Bourseau-Guilmain, E., Belting, M., Fransson, L.-A., Mani, K. Tags: Cell Biology Source Type: research
