Eukaryotic glycosylation

Reuter, G. Gabius, H.-J. (1999) Eukaryotic glycosylation whim of nature or multipurpose tool Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 55, 368-422. Excellent review of the chemical diversity of oligosaccharides and polysaccharides and of biological processes dependent upon protein-carbohydrate recognition. 

Post-translational modification of proteins plays a critical role in cellular function. For, example protein phosphorylation events control the majority of the signal transduction pathways in eukaryotic cells. Therefore, an important goal of proteomics is the identification of post-translational modifications. Proteins can undergo a wide range of post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation, glycosylation, sulphonation, palmitoylation and ADP-ribosylation. These modifications can play an essential role in the function of the protein and mass spectrometry has been used to characterize such modifications. 

The recent impressive work from Hamilton and Gerngross [66] about controlled humanization of iV-glycosylation opened up very attractive perspectives for yeasts for large-scale production of eukaryotic fully humanized sialylated glycoproteins. That makes them serious... 

Several companies have expressed the cDNA coding for human factor VIII C in a variety of eukaryotic production systems (human VIII C contains 25 potential glycosylation sites). CHO cells and BHK cell lines have been most commonly used, in addition to other cell lines, such as various mouse carcinoma cell lines. The recombinant factor VIII product generally contains only VIII C (i.e. is devoid of vWF). However, both clinical and preclinical studies have shown that administration of this product to patients suffering from haemophilia A is equally as effective as administering blood-derived factor VIII complex. The recombinant VIII C product appears to bind plasma... 

Most of the recombinant subunit vaccines tested in the first half of this decade employed gp 120 or gp 160 expressed in yeast, insect or mammalian (mainly CHO) cell lines. Eukaryotic systems facilitate glycosylation of the protein products. Like all subunit vaccines, these stimulate a humoral-based immune response but fail to elicit a strong T-cell response. The failure to elicit a cell-based... 

Most frequently, extracts of either prokaryotic or eukaryotic origin as such from Escherichia coli, wheat germ or rabbit reticulocytes are employed for cost reasons and availability. While those based on E. coli are unable of post-translational protein modification, eukaryotic extracts do allow synthesis of glycosylated or phosphorylated proteins to some extent when additional components, such as microsomes for glycosylation are added. Care needs to be taken with cell-free systems recombinated from the individual components when a native protein is to be produced that does not fold spontaneously... 

Protein glycosylation occurs mainly on serine and asparagine residues,but can also occur on hydroxylysine and hydroxyproline (Scheme 15). Glycosylation is very important in the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus and can be involved in cell signaling. Many of the membrane-bound proteins and excreted proteins are glycosylated. Protein glycosylation is important in all forms of eukaryotes. ... 

Post-translational modifications, such as phosphorylation, complex glycosylation, and lipidation, typically occur in eukaryotic organisms. Therefore, their expression in prokaryotic systems like Escherichia coli is difficult. However, it should be noted that via clever engineering and coexpression of specific enzymes, access can be granted to specific lipidated proteins via expression in bacteria, for example, via the expression of A -myristoyltransferase in E. coli Eukaryotic systems that can be used for the expression of post-translationally modified proteins are yeast and Dictyostelium discoidum. Furthermore, lipidated proteins, such as the Rah proteins, can be obtained via purification from tissue sources or from membrane fractions of insect cells that had been infected with baculovirus bearing a Rah gene. ... 

E. coli Economical, fast, easy, high yield, well characterized genetics, large number of cloning vectors Insolubility and misfolding of proteins, no glycosylation possible, difference in codon usage between prokaryotes and eukaryotes... 

Eukaryotic expression yeast Pichia pastoris] Rapid growth with ease of scale-up and Glycosylated product differs from... 

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