title: Expression and functional characterization of a nucleotide sugar transporter from Drosophila melanogaster: relevance to protein glycosylation in insect cell expression systems.
abstract: Insect cells are used routinely to express recombinant mammalian glycoproteins. However, insect protein glycosylation pathways are not well understood and appear to differ from those of mammalian cells. One way to more clearly evaluate the protein glycosylation potential of insect cells is to use the Drosophila melanogaster genome to identify genes that might encode relevant functions. These genes can then be expressed and the functions of the gene products directly evaluated by biochemical assays. In this study, we used this approach to determine the function of a putative Drosophila nucleotide sugar transporter gene. The results showed that this gene encodes a protein that can transport UDP-galactose, but not CMP-sialic acid. Thus, Drosophila encodes at least some of the infrastructure needed to produce glycoproteins with complex glycans, but this particular gene product does not directly support glycoprotein sialylation. These findings are relevant to insect cell biology and to an informed consideration of insect cell expression systems as tools for recombinant glycoprotein production.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, University of Wyoming, P.O. Box 3944, Laramie, Wyoming 82071-3944, USA.
authors.forename: Jared J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Aumiller
authors.forename: Donald L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Jarvis
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D016466:CHO Cells; D002460:Cell Line; D006224:Cricetinae; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D015870:Gene Expression; D017344:Genes, Insect / Q000235:genetics; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D006031:Glycosylation; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009004:Monosaccharide Transport Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D010802:Phylogeny; D017385:Sequence Homology; D018411:Spodoptera; D013379:Substrate Specificity; D000099237:UDP-Galactose Translocators
chemical_list: D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D009004:Monosaccharide Transport Proteins; D000099237:UDP-Galactose Translocators