Scheys Freja, Van Damme Els J M, De Schutter Kristof, Staes An, Gevaert Kris, Smagghe Guy
Department of Plants and Crops, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium.
Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium.
Insect Biochem Mol Biol. 2018 Sep;100:22-29. doi: 10.1016/j.ibmb.2018.04.011. Epub 2018 Jun 12.
N-glycosylation is one of the most abundant and conserved protein modifications in eukaryotes. The attachment of N-glycans to proteins can modulate their properties and influences numerous important biological processes, such as protein folding and cellular attachment. Recently, it has been shown that protein N-glycosylation plays a vital role in insect development and survival, which makes the glycans an interesting target for pest control. Despite the importance of protein N-glycosylation in insects, knowledge about insect N-glycoproteomes is scarce. To fill this gap, the N-glycosites were identified in proteins from three major pest insects, spanning different insect orders and diverging in post-embryonic development, feeding mechanism and evolutionary ancestry: Drosophila melanogaster (Diptera), Tribolium castaneum (Coleoptera) and Acyrthosiphon pisum (Hemiptera). The N-glyco-FASP method for isolation of N-glycopeptides was optimized to study the insect N-glycosites and allowed the identification of 889 N-glycosylation sites in T. castaneum, 941 in D. melanogaster and 1338 in A. pisum. Although a large set of the corresponding glycoproteins is shared among the three insects, species- and order-specific glycoproteins were also identified. The functionality of the insect glycoproteins together with the conservation of the N-glycosites throughout evolution is discussed. This information can help in the elaboration of novel pest insect control strategies based on interference in insect glycosylation.
N-糖基化是真核生物中最丰富且保守的蛋白质修饰之一。N-聚糖与蛋白质的连接能够调节其性质，并影响众多重要的生物学过程，如蛋白质折叠和细胞附着。最近有研究表明，蛋白质N-糖基化在昆虫发育和生存中起着至关重要的作用，这使得聚糖成为害虫防治的一个有趣靶点。尽管蛋白质N-糖基化在昆虫中很重要，但关于昆虫N-糖蛋白组的知识却很匮乏。为了填补这一空白，我们在三种主要害虫的蛋白质中鉴定了N-糖基化位点，这三种害虫分属于不同的昆虫目，在胚胎后发育、取食机制和进化谱系方面存在差异：黑腹果蝇（双翅目）、赤拟谷盗（鞘翅目）和豌豆蚜（半翅目）。优化了用于分离N-糖肽的N-糖基化FASP方法，以研究昆虫的N-糖基化位点，并在赤拟谷盗中鉴定出889个N-糖基化位点，在黑腹果蝇中鉴定出941个，在豌豆蚜中鉴定出1338个。尽管这三种昆虫共享大量相应的糖蛋白，但也鉴定出了物种特异性和目特异性的糖蛋白。本文还讨论了昆虫糖蛋白的功能以及N-糖基化位点在整个进化过程中的保守性。这些信息有助于制定基于干扰昆虫糖基化的新型害虫防治策略。
