At the membrane frontier: A prospectus on the remarkable evolutionary conservation of polyprenols and polyprenyl-phosphates

作者：Hartley Meredith D; Imperiali Barbara^*

来源：Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, 2012, 517(2): 83-97.

DOI：10.1016/j.abb.2011.10.018

• Polyprenol
• Polyprenyl-phosphate
• Dolichol
• Dolichyl-phosphate
• N-linked glycosylation

Long-chain polyprenols and polyprenyl-phosphates are ubiquitous and essential components of cellular membranes throughout all domains of life. Polyprenyl-phosphates, which include undecaprenyl-phosphate in bacteria and the dolichyl-phosphates in archaea and eukaryotes, serve as specific membrane-bound carriers in glycan biosynthetic pathways responsible for the production of cellular structures such as N-linked protein glycans and bacterial peptidoglycan. Polyprenyl-phosphates are the only form of polyprenols with a biochemically-defined role; however, unmodified or esterified polyprenols often comprise significant percentages of the cellular polyprenol pool. The strong evolutionary conservation of unmodified polyprenols as membrane constituents and polyprenyl-phosphates as preferred glycan carriers in biosynthetic pathways is poorly understood. This review surveys the available research to explore why unmodified polyprenols have been conserved in evolution and why polyprenyl-phosphates are universally and specifically utilized for membrane-bound glycan assembly.

• 出版日期2012-1-15