The rare sugar N-acetylated viosamine is a major component of Mimivirus fibers.

ABSTRACT: The giant virus Mimivirus encodes an autonomous glycosylation system that is thought to be responsible for the formation of complex and unusual glycans composing the fibers surrounding its icosahedral capsid, including the dideoxyhexose viosamine. Previous studies have identified a gene cluster in the virus genome, encoding enzymes involved in nucleotide-sugar production and glycan formation, but the functional characterization of these enzymes and the full identification of the glycans found in viral fibers remain incomplete. Because viosamine is typically found in acylated forms, we suspected that one of the genes might encode an acyltransferase, providing directions to our functional annotations. Bioinformatic analyses indicated that the L142 protein contains an N-terminal acyltransfera

SUBMITTER: Piacente F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5418040 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature