The Trypanosome UDP-Glucose Pyrophosphorylase Is Imported by Piggybacking into Glycosomes, Where Unconventional Sugar Nucleotide Synthesis Takes Place.

ABSTRACT: Glycosomes are peroxisome-related organelles of trypanosomatid parasites containing metabolic pathways, such as glycolysis and biosynthesis of sugar nucleotides, usually present in the cytosol of other eukaryotes. UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (UGP), the enzyme responsible for the synthesis of the sugar nucleotide UDP-glucose, is localized in the cytosol and glycosomes of the bloodstream and procyclic trypanosomes, despite the absence of any known peroxisome-targeting signal (PTS1 and PTS2). The questions that we address here are (i) is the unusual glycosomal biosynthetic pathway of sugar nucleotides functional and (ii) how is the PTS-free UGP imported into glycosomes? We showed that UGP is imported into glycosomes by piggybacking on the glycosomal PTS1-containing phosphoenolpyruvate carbo

SUBMITTER: Villafraz O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8262884 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature