Mechanism glycosylation

Using insect cells instead of eukaryotic cell lines has following advantages a reduced transporter background and higher expression levels. However, one should also consider that the lipid membrane composition and glycosylation mechanism differ in insect cells from eukaryotic cells. 

At the current time, a wealth of knowledge for protein glycosylation has been obtained from numerous studies conducted in eukaryotes rather than in bacteria. However, the simplicity of the bacterial systems has made them a great model for studying different basic aspects entailed in protein glycosylation. Moreover, recent studies identified some unique protein glycosylation mechanisms in bacteria such as Neisseria and Pseudomonas that have not been described for any other eukaryotes before. 

Polysaccharide formation is carried out by sequential addition of glycosidic residues (one or more monosaccharide molecules) at a time to different acceptors. Glycoprotein formation is also carried out similarly, but how is the first sugar resioue introduced It is thought that a spatial and temporal union between protein and glycosylation mechanisms most be established. 

Alavi A, Axford JS, Hay FC, Jones MG. Tissue-specific galactosyltransferase abnormalities in an experimental model of rheumatoid arthritis. Ann Med Intern (1998) 149(5) 251-260. Axford JS, Sumar N, Alavi A, Isenberg DA, Young A, Bodman KB, Roitt IM. Changes in normal glycosylation mechanisms in autoimmune rheumatic disease. J Clin Invest (1992) 89(3) 1021-1031. 

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