Involved in the interconversion between alpha- and beta-L-fucoses. L-Fucose (6-deoxy-L-galactose) exists as alpha-L-fucose (29.5%) and beta-L-fucose (70.5%), the beta-form is metabolized through the salvage pathway. GDP-L-fucose formed either by the de novo or salvage pathways is transported into the endoplasmic reticulum, where it serves as a substrate for N- and O-glycosylations by fucosyltransferases. Fucosylated structures expressed on cell surfaces or secreted in biological fluids are believed to play a critical role in cell-cell adhesion and recognition processes.
L-Fucose for mammalian glycosylation contains an anomeric carbon atom generating alpha- and beta-L-fucoses. Based on sequence comparison of mouse and human homologs with the prokaryotic fucose mutarotases (FucU) characterized previously, we investigated their function in mammalian cells. By nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurement with saturation difference analysis, the purified mammalian mutarotases were demonstrated to be involved in an interconversion between the two anomeric forms with comparable efficiency as that of the Escherichia coli FucU. The mouse gene was widely expressed in various tissues and cell lines, including kidney, liver, and pancreas, although expression was marginal in muscle and testis. By generating stably expressed cell lines for mutarotase genes in HepG2, it was shown that fucose incorporations into cellular proteins were increased as demonstrated by an incorporation of radiolabeled fucose into the cells. Furthermore, intracellular levels of GDP-L-fucose, measured with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), were enhanced by an overproduction of cellular mutarotase, which was reversed by gene silencing of mutarotase based on RNA interference. The results suggest that the mammalian mutarotase is functional in facilitated incorporation of fucose through the salvage pathway.
L-Fucose for mammalian glycosylation contains an anomeric carbon atom generating alpha- and beta-L-fucoses. Based on sequence comparison of mouse and human homologs with the prokaryotic fucose mutarotases (FucU) characterized previously, we investigated their function in mammalian cells. By nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurement with saturation difference analysis, the purified mammalian mutarotases were demonstrated to be involved in an interconversion between the two anomeric forms with comparable efficiency as that of the Escherichia coli FucU. The mouse gene was widely expressed in various tissues and cell lines, including kidney, liver, and pancreas, although expression was marginal in muscle and testis. By generating stably expressed cell lines for mutarotase genes in HepG2, it was shown that fucose incorporations into cellular proteins were increased as demonstrated by an incorporation of radiolabeled fucose into the cells. Furthermore, intracellular levels of GDP-L-fucose, measured with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), were enhanced by an overproduction of cellular mutarotase, which was reversed by gene silencing of mutarotase based on RNA interference. The results suggest that the mammalian mutarotase is functional in facilitated incorporation of fucose through the salvage pathway.
Enzyme that catalyzes the 1,1-, 1,2- or 1,3-hydrogen shift. The 1,1- hydrogen shift is an inversion at an asymmetric carbon center (racemases, epimerases). The 1,2-hydrogen shift involved a hydrogen transfer between two adjacent carbon atoms, one undergoing oxidation, the other reduction (aldose-ketose isomerases). The 1,3-hydrogen shifts are allylic or azaallylic (when nitrogen is one of the three atoms) isomerizations.
A reference proteome is a set of protein sequences derived from a complete proteome which constitutes a defined standard for a particular user community. Reference proteomes are manually defined according to a number of criteria. They cover the proteomes of well- studied model organisms and other proteomes of interest for biomedical and biotechnological research. Reference proteomes have been selected to provide broad coverage of the tree of life, and constitute a representative cross-section of the taxonomic diversity to be found within UniProtKB.