Glycosyltransferases

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• Author: Spencer Williams
• Responsible Curator: Spencer Williams

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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

2. Lairson LL, Henrissat B, Davies GJ, and Withers SG. (2008). Glycosyltransferases: structures, functions, and mechanisms. Annu Rev Biochem. 2008;77:521-55. DOI:10.1146/annurev.biochem.76.061005.092322 |
3. Coutinho PM, Deleury E, Davies GJ, and Henrissat B. (2003). An evolving hierarchical family classification for glycosyltransferases. J Mol Biol. 2003;328(2):307-17. DOI:10.1016/s0022-2836(03)00307-3 |
4. Campbell JA, Davies GJ, Bulone V, and Henrissat B. (1997). A classification of nucleotide-diphospho-sugar glycosyltransferases based on amino acid sequence similarities. Biochem J. 1997;326 ( Pt 3)(Pt 3):929-39. DOI:10.1042/bj3260929u |