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The Role of N‐glycosylation in Drosophila Development: Characterization of alg10
Author(s) -
Dominica Carolyn Reeves,
Lebois Evan P.,
Selva Erica M.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.22.1_supplement.1026.2
Subject(s) - imaginal disc , glycosylation , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , drosophila melanogaster , mutant , drosophila (subgenus) , function (biology) , receptor tyrosine kinase , phenotype , gene , signal transduction , drosophilidae , glycosyltransferase , genetics
Proteins that function extracellularly must undergo the process of secretion and are subject to posttranslational modifications before cell signaling can occur. In this study, Drosophila harboring mutations in alg10 are characterized. alg10 encodes a glycosyltransferase that catalyzes addition of the terminal glucose to the growing dolichol‐linked oligosaccharide just prior to its en masse transfer to nascent polypeptides. Our study of P‐element excision alleles of alg10 shows that this gene product is of critical importance during Drosophila development. Removal of both zygotic‐ and maternal‐derived alg10 results in severe and pleiotropic embryonic deficits, demonstrating the importance of regulated N‐glycosylation during early Drosophila development. Removal of alg10 from larval eye imaginal discs leads to a disordered eye of reduced size. These effects may be mediated through the Sevenless activated MAP kinase cascade, as we find alg10 mutant eye discs display pathway gain‐of‐function phenotypes. These findings indicate that regulated N‐glycosylation of a component of the Sevenless receptor tyrosine kinase pathway is an important target of Alg10 function. Together, our data suggest that tissue specific addition of terminal glucose to the dolichol‐linked oligosaccharide is an essential regulatory event in Drosophila development. Sponsored by HHMI Biological Sciences Education Program