Nucleotide sugars are a group of biochemicals that act as donors for sugar residues in the glycosylation reactions that produce polysaccharides in metabolism.[1] They are substrates for glycosyltransferases.[2] Various forms of these molecules exist, with GDP often being used in eukaryotes for the donation of disaccharides, such as GDP-mannose, and UDP for monosaccharides such as UDP-glucose and UDP-galactose. The nucleotide sugars are also intermediates in nucleotide sugar interconversions that produce some of the activated sugars needed for glycosylation reactions.[1]
Nucleotide sugar metabolism is particularly well-studies in bacterial pathogens, such as E. coli and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, since these molecules are required for the synthesis of glycoconjugates on the surfaces of these organisms.[3][4] These glycoconjugates are virulence factors and components of the bacterial cell wall. These pathways are also studied in plants, but here the enzymes involved are less well understood.[5]
Since most glycosylation takes place in the endoplasmic reticulum and golgi apparatus, there are a large family of nucleotide sugar transporters that allow nucleotide sugars to move from the cytoplasm, where they are produced, into the organelles where they are consumed.[6][7]
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