Glycosyl transfer to an acceptor lipid from insects

• Published in: Biochemical and biophysical research communications Vol. 66; no. 4; pp. 1201 - 1208
• Main Authors: Quesada Allué, Luis A., Belocopitow, Enrique, Maréchal, Luis R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 27.10.1975
• Subjects: Acetylglucosamine - metabolism; Animals; Ceratitis capitata; Chromatography, Thin Layer; Diptera - metabolism; Glucose - metabolism; Glycolipids - biosynthesis; Insecta - metabolism; Phospholipids - metabolism; Rats; Species Specificity; Triatoma infestans
• ISSN: 0006-291X; 1090-2104
• DOI: 10.1016/0006-291X(75)90486-6

Insect extracts were found to contain a lipid which becomes glycosylated when incubated with uridine diphosphate glucose or uridine diphosphate N-acetylglucosamine and microsomal enzymes of rat liver. The behaviour of the lipid on column or thin-layer chromatography and its stability to acid were equal to those of dolichol monophosphate. The glycosylated compounds were acid labile. Treatment with alkali of the acetylglucosaminyl compound produced a substance that migrated like a hexose phosphate on electrophoresis and that liberated acetylglucosamine on treatment with alkaline phosphatase. The behaviour of the insect glucosylated lipid on thin-layer chromatography and its stability to phenol were similar to dolichol monophosphate glucose and different from ficaprenyl monophosphate glucose. It is concluded that the insect glycosyl acceptor lipid is an α saturated polyprenyl phosphate.