title: The complex structures of arabinogalactan-proteins and the journey towards understanding function.
abstract: Arabinogalactan-proteins (AGPs) are a family of complex proteoglycans found in all higher plants. Although the precise function(s) of any single AGP is unknown, they are implicated in diverse developmental roles such as differentiation, cell-cell recognition, embryogenesis and programmed cell death. DNA sequencing projects have made possible the identification of the genes encoding a large number of putative AGP protein backbones. In contrast, our understanding of how AGPs undergo extensive post-translational modification is poor and it is important to understand these processes since they are likely to be critical for AGP function. Genes believed to be responsible for post-translational modification of an AGP protein backbone, include prolyl hydroxylases, glycosyl transferases, proteases and glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchor synthesising enzymes. Here we examine models for proteoglycan function in animals and yeast to highlight possible strategies for determining the function(s) of individual AGPs in plants.
authors.affiliation: Plant Cell Biology Research Centre, University of Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gaspar
authors.forename: K L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: McKenna
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bacic
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Schultz
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002473:Cell Wall / Q000378:metabolism; D006031:Glycosylation; D017261:Glycosylphosphatidylinositols / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009088:Mucoproteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D009154:Mutation; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D017261:Glycosylphosphatidylinositols; D009088:Mucoproteins; D010940:Plant Proteins; C006619:arabinogalactan proteins