© 2007-2010 The Authors and Curators of CAZypedia. All rights reserved.
Contributors and readers: You can cite CAZypedia! Here's how.

From CAZypedia

This page is currently under construction. This means that the Responsible Curator has deemed that the page's content is not quite up to CAZypedia's standards for full public consumption. All information should be considered to be under revision and may be subject to major changes.

• Author: Spencer Williams
• Responsible Curator: Spencer Williams

Overview

Glycosyltransferases are enzymes that catalyze the formation of the glycosidic linkage to form a glycoside. These enzymes utilize 'activated' sugar phosphates as glycosyl donors, and catalyze glycosyl group transfer to a nucleophilic group, usually an alcohol. The product of glycosyl transfer may be an O-, N-, S-, or C-glycoside; the glycoside may be part of a monosaccharide glycoside, oligosaccharide, or polysaccharide.

Donors

Glycosyltransferases can utilize a range of donor species. Sugar mono- or diphosphonucleotides are sometimes termed Leloir donors (after Nobel prize winner, Luis Leloir); the corresponding enzymes are termed Leloir donors.

Glycosyltransferases that utilize non-nucleotide donors, which may be polyprenol pyrophosphates, polyprenol phosphates, sugar-1-phosphates, or sugar-1-pyrophosphates, are termed non-Leloir glycosyltransferases.

References

1. Robert V. Stick, Spencer J. Williams. Carbohydrates. Amsterdam; Elsevier, 2009. isbn:978-0-240-52118-3. [StickWilliams]
2. Lairson LL, Henrissat B, Davies GJ, and Withers SG. Glycosyltransferases: structures, functions, and mechanisms. Annu Rev Biochem 2008; 77 521-55. doi:10.1146/annurev.biochem.76.061005.092322 pmid:18518825. PubMed HubMed [Lairson2008]
3. Coutinho PM, Deleury E, Davies GJ, and Henrissat B. An evolving hierarchical family classification for glycosyltransferases. J Mol Biol 2003 Apr 25; 328(2) 307-17. pmid:12691742. PubMed HubMed [CoutinhoJMB2003]
4. Campbell JA, Davies GJ, Bulone V, and Henrissat B. A classification of nucleotide-diphospho-sugar glycosyltransferases based on amino acid sequence similarities. Biochem J 1997 Sep 15; 326 ( Pt 3) 929-39. pmid:9334165. PubMed HubMed [CampbellBJ1997]