Srivastava Payal, Ghosh Sumit
CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow 226015, Uttar Pradesh, India; Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, Ghaziabad 201002, Uttar Pradesh, India; Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, 612 Wilson Rd, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA(1).
CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Lucknow 226015, Uttar Pradesh, India; Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, Ghaziabad 201002, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Int J Biol Macromol. 2025 Mar;292:138821. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.138821. Epub 2024 Dec 19.
Glycosylation is one of the most fundamental biochemical processes in cells. It plays crucial roles in diversifying plant natural products for structures, bioavailability and bioactivity, and thus, renders the glycosylated compounds valuable as food additives, nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals. Moreover, glycosylated compounds impact plant growth, development and stress response. Therefore, understanding the biochemical function of the glycosyltransferases (GTs) is crucial to the elucidation of natural product biosynthetic pathways, improving plant traits and development of processes for industrially-important compounds. UDP-dependent glycosyltransferases (UGTs) that belong to the glycosyltransferase family-1 (GT1) and catalyze the transfer of glycosyl moieties from UDP-sugars to various small molecules, are the key players in natural product glycosylation. Recent studies also found the involvement of non-canonical cellulose synthase-like (CesAs) and glycosyl hydrolase (GH) family enzymes in the glycosylation of plant specialized metabolites. Decades of research on GTs provided critical insights into catalytic mechanism, substrate/product specificity and catalytic promiscuity, but biochemical function and physiological roles of GTs in majority of the natural product biosynthetic pathways remain to be understood. It is also important to redefine high-throughput strategies of GT mining to uncover novel biochemical function, considering that GTs are the large superfamily members in plants and other organisms. This review underscores the roles of GTs in small molecule glycosylation, plant development and stress responses, highlighting the catalytic versatility and substrate/product specificity of GTs in shaping plant metabolic diversity, and discusses the emerging strategies for mining of uncharacterized GTs to unravel biochemical and physiological functions and to elucidate natural product biosynthetic pathways.
糖基化是细胞中最基本的生化过程之一。它在使植物天然产物的结构、生物利用度和生物活性多样化方面发挥着关键作用，因此，使糖基化化合物作为食品添加剂、营养保健品和药物具有价值。此外，糖基化化合物会影响植物的生长、发育和应激反应。因此，了解糖基转移酶（GTs）的生化功能对于阐明天然产物生物合成途径、改善植物性状以及开发具有工业重要性的化合物的生产工艺至关重要。属于糖基转移酶家族1（GT1）的UDP依赖性糖基转移酶（UGTs）催化糖基部分从UDP-糖转移到各种小分子，是天然产物糖基化的关键参与者。最近的研究还发现非典型纤维素合酶样（CesAs）和糖基水解酶（GH）家族酶参与植物特殊代谢产物的糖基化。对GTs数十年的研究为催化机制、底物/产物特异性和催化多效性提供了重要见解，但GTs在大多数天然产物生物合成途径中的生化功能和生理作用仍有待了解。考虑到GTs是植物和其他生物中的大型超家族成员，重新定义GT挖掘的高通量策略以发现新的生化功能也很重要。这篇综述强调了GTs在小分子糖基化、植物发育和应激反应中的作用，突出了GTs在塑造植物代谢多样性方面的催化多功能性和底物/产物特异性，并讨论了挖掘未表征GTs以揭示生化和生理功能以及阐明天然产物生物合成途径的新出现策略。
