Molecular Biology of Archaea, Max-Planck Institute for terrestrial Microbiology, Karl-von-Frisch-Strasse 10, 35043 Marburg, Germany.
Biochem Soc Trans. 2013 Feb 1;41(1):384-92. doi: 10.1042/BST20120296.
Every living cell is covered with a dense and complex array of covalently attached sugars or sugar chains. The majority of these glycans are linked to proteins via the so-called glycosylation process. Protein glycosylation is found in all three domains of life: Eukarya, Bacteria and Archaea. However, on the basis of the limit in analytic tools for glycobiology and genetics in Archaea, only in the last few years has research on archaeal glycosylation pathways started mainly in the Euryarchaeota Haloferax volcanii, Methanocaldococcus maripaludis and Methanococcus voltae. Recently, major steps of the crenarchaeal glycosylation process of the thermoacidophilic archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius have been described. The present review summarizes the proposed N-glycosylation pathway of S. acidocaldarius, describing the phenotypes of the mutants disrupted in N-glycan biosynthesis as well as giving insights into the archaeal O-linked and glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchor glycosylation process.
每个活细胞都覆盖着一层密集而复杂的共价连接的糖或糖链。这些糖中的大多数通过所谓的糖基化过程与蛋白质相连。蛋白质糖基化存在于生命的三个领域：真核生物、细菌和古菌。然而，由于古菌中糖生物学和遗传学分析工具的限制，直到最近几年，主要在广古菌门的嗜热嗜酸古菌（例如，火球菌属（Haloferax volcanii）、甲烷球菌属（Methanocaldococcus maripaludis）和甲烷球菌属（Methanococcus voltae）中才开始研究古菌的糖基化途径。最近，已描述了嗜热嗜酸古菌（Sulfolobus acidocaldarius）的质层古菌糖基化过程的主要步骤。本综述总结了 S. acidocaldarius 的拟议 N-糖基化途径，描述了在 N-聚糖生物合成中被破坏的突变体的表型，并深入了解了古菌的 O-连接和糖基磷脂酰肌醇锚糖基化过程。
