title: At the membrane frontier: a prospectus on the remarkable evolutionary conservation of polyprenols and polyprenyl-phosphates.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Meredith D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Hartley
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Imperiali
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001693:Biological Transport, Active; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D002240:Carbohydrate Sequence; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D005233:Fatty Alcohols / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015394:Molecular Structure; D011106:Polyisoprenyl Phosphates / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D005233:Fatty Alcohols; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D011106:Polyisoprenyl Phosphates; D011134:Polysaccharides
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