Taxonomic group: fungi / Ascomycota
(Phylum: Ascomycota)
Organ / tissue: cell wall
NCBI PubMed ID: 29679465Publication DOI: 10.1002/iub.1734Journal NLM ID: 100888706Publisher: London; Philadelphia, PA: International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology by Taylor & Francis
Correspondence: Komath SS <sskomath
mail.jnu.ac.in>; Komath SS <sskomath
yahoo.com>
Institutions: School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins (GPI-APs) are present ubiquitously at the cell surface in all eukaryotes. They play a crucial role in the interaction of the cell with its external environment, allowing the cell to receive signals, respond to challenges, and mediate adhesion. In yeast and fungi, they also participate in the structural integrity of the cell wall and are often essential for survival. Roughly four decades after the discovery of the first GPI-APs, this review provides an overview of the insights gained from studies of the GPI biosynthetic pathway and the future challenges in the field. In particular, we focus on the biosynthetic pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which has for long been studied as a model organism. Where available, we also provide information about the GPI biosynthetic steps in other yeast/ fungi. Although the core structure of the GPI anchor is conserved across organisms, several variations are built into the biosynthetic pathway. The present Review specifically highlights these variations and their implications. There is growing evidence to suggest that several phenotypes are common to GPI deficiency and should be expected in GPI biosynthetic mutants. However, it appears that several phenotypes are unique to a specific step in the pathway and may even be species-specific. These could suggest the points at which the GPI biosynthetic pathway intersects with other important cellular pathways and could be points of regulation. They could be of particular significance in the study of pathogenic fungi and in identification of new and specific antifungal drugs/ drug targets.
cell wall, Candida albicans, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, GPI anchor biosynthesis, antifungal drug target
Structure type: structural motif or average structure
Location inside paper: p.367, column 2, paragraph 1, Fig.2
Trivial name: chitin
Compound class: cell wall polysaccharide, glucan
Contained glycoepitopes: IEDB_135813,IEDB_137340,IEDB_141807,IEDB_151531,IEDB_153212,IEDB_241099,IEDB_423114,IEDB_423150,SB_74,SB_85
Biological activity: important for cell wall integrity
Related record ID(s): 48634, 48636, 48650, 48651, 48652, 48689, 48691, 48694, 48715, 48750, 48751, 48753, 48757, 48764, 48769, 48785, 48794, 48795, 48801, 48804, 48828, 48853, 48859, 48872, 48900, 48901, 48902, 48983, 48984
NCBI Taxonomy refs (TaxIDs): 4932,
746128Reference(s) to other database(s): GTC:G97099AY
Show glycosyltransferases
There is only one chemically distinct structure:
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