O-Glucose Glycans in Drosophila Notch Signaling

Reference work entry

Abstract

O-glucose glycans are a type of O-linked glycan identified on epidermal growth factor-like (EGF) repeats. In work performed in Drosophila, the roles of O-glucose glycans and their corresponding glycosyltransferases during animal development were analyzed. O-glucose is a high-occupancy sugar modification added by the protein O-glucosyltransferase Rumi (POGLUT1 in mammals). The Notch receptor is a biologically relevant target for O-glucose modifications, and O-glucose residues on Notch function additively and/or redundantly to activate Notch signaling in a temperature-dependent manner. Current data suggest that O-glucose residues regulate Notch activation by altering the conformation of the Notch extracellular domain to promote efficient processing of Notch at a step after ligand binding and before S3 cleavage. O-glucose can also act as a substrate for xylose modification by the fly glucoside xylosyltransferase Shams (GXYLT1/2 in mammals). Unlike glucose modifications, which promote Notch signaling in all contexts examined thus far, xylose modifications inhibit Notch signaling in certain contexts. Moreover, while O-glucose residues are distributed across the Notch extracellular domain, xylose residues are only present in a specific domain of the Drosophila Notch, namely, EGF14-20. The contrasting roles of glucose and xylose demonstrate the role of O-glucose glycans in finely modulating Drosophila Notch signaling.

Keywords

Notch Drosophila O-glucose Rumi POGLUT Xylose Xylosyltransferase Shams GXYLT EGF repeat 

References

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Copyright information

© Springer Japan 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Molecular and Human GeneticsBaylor College of MedicineHoustonUSA
  2. 2.Department of Molecular and Human GeneticsBaylor College of MedicineHoustonUSA
  3. 3.Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Program in Developmental BiologyBaylor College of MedicineHoustonUSA

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