# name
The disruption of GDP-fucose de novo biosynthesis suggests the
                presence of a novel fucose-containing glycoconjugate in
                Plasmodium asexual blood stages

# metadata.dc.description.abstract[].value
Glycosylation is an important posttranslational protein
                modification in all eukaryotes. Besides
                glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchors and N-glycosylation,
                O-fucosylation has been recently reported in key sporozoite
                proteins of the malaria parasite. Previous analyses showed the
                presence of GDP-fucose (GDP-Fuc), the precursor for all
                fucosylation reactions, in the blood stages of Plasmodium
                falciparum. The GDP-Fuc de novo pathway, which requires the
                action of GDP-mannose 4,6-dehydratase (GMD) and GDP-L-fucose
                synthase (FS), is conserved in the parasite genome, but the
                importance of fucose metabolism for the parasite is unknown. To
                functionally characterize the pathway we generated a PfGMD
                mutant and analyzed its phenotype. Although the labelling by the
                fucose-binding Ulex europaeus agglutinin I (UEA-I) was
                completely abrogated, GDP-Fuc was still detected in the mutant.
                This unexpected result suggests the presence of an alternative
                mechanism for maintaining GDP-Fuc in the parasite. Furthermore,
                PfGMD null mutant exhibited normal growth and invasion rates,
                revealing that the GDP-Fuc de novo metabolic pathway is not
                essential for the development in culture of the malaria parasite
                during the asexual blood stages. Nonetheless, the function of
                this metabolic route and the GDP-Fuc pool that is generated
                during this stage may be important for gametocytogenesis and
                sporogonic development in the mosquito.

# metadata.dc.relation.isformatof[].value
Reproducció del document publicat a:
                http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep37230

# metadata.dc.relation.ispartof[].value
Scientific Reports, 2016, vol. 6, num. 37230

# metadata.dc.source[].value
Articles publicats en revistes (ISGlobal)

# metadata.dc.title[].value
The disruption of GDP-fucose de novo biosynthesis suggests the
                presence of a novel fucose-containing glycoconjugate in
                Plasmodium asexual blood stages