What is it about?
Nucleotide sugars are substrates for biosynthesis of diverse polysaccharides and sugar-carrying molecules. UDP-glucose is one of the important and universal nucleotide sugars. GalU-type enzyme has been the bacterial standard for production of UDP-glucose. Now, CugP-type enzyme is the second standard and widely distributed to cyanobacteria, phototrophic prokaryotes.
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Why is it important?
It is important for understanding of evolutionary background for sugar metabolism. It is also important for engineering of photosynthetic production of biomolecules.
Perspectives
Before starting of this work, we noticed the absence of GalU-type enzyme in many cyanobacteria, though UDP-glucose seemed to be essential for their survival. We enjoyed screening, proving, and discussing of a novel type of enzyme. We would like to unveil why and how two distinct enzymes are separately engaged in evolution in near future.
Professor Masahiko Ikeuchi
Tokyo International University of America
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: CugP Is a Novel Ubiquitous Non-GalU-Type Bacterial UDP-Glucose Pyrophosphorylase Found in Cyanobacteria, Journal of Bacteriology, April 2014, ASM Journals,
DOI: 10.1128/jb.01591-14.
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