Acetamido sugar biosynthesis in the Euryarchaea.

ABSTRACT: Archaea and eukaryotes share a dolichol phosphate-dependent system for protein N-glycosylation. In both domains, the acetamido sugar N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) forms part of the core oligosaccharide. However, the archaeal Methanococcales produce GlcNAc using the bacterial biosynthetic pathway. Key enzymes in this pathway belong to large families of proteins with diverse functions; therefore, the archaeal enzymes could not be identified solely using comparative sequence analysis. Genes encoding acetamido sugar-biosynthetic proteins were identified in Methanococcus maripaludis using phylogenetic and gene cluster analyses. Proteins expressed in Escherichia coli were purified and assayed for the predicted activities. The MMP1680 protein encodes a universally conserved glucosamine-6-phosphate

SUBMITTER: Namboori SC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2293230 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature