Loss of N-glycolylneuraminic acid in humans: Mechanisms, consequences, and implications for hominid evolution
✍ Scribed by Ajit Varki
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2001
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 230 KB
- Volume
- 116
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0002-9483
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✦ Synopsis
CMP-Neu5Ac: Cytidine-monophosphate-Neu5Ac, the high-energy sugar nucleotide donor for enzymes that add Neu5Ac to glycosylated molecules. Also, the natural substrate for conversion to CMP-Neu5Gc.
Deuterostomes: coelomate animals which have radial instead of spiral cleavage at the eight-cell stage and forms the anus from the blastopore instead of the mouth (includes vertebrates and relatives, as well as certain higher invertebrates, such as sea urchins and starfish).
Glycosylation: attachment of sugar chains to other molecules like lipids and proteins, giving glycolipids and glycoproteins.
N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac): the most common form of sialic acid in most mammals. N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc): another common form of mammalian sialic acid, which is selectively missing in humans.
Pseudogene: an inactive but stable component of the genome derived from an ancestral active gene. Sialic acids: a family of 9-carbon acidic sugars found attached to many glycosylated cell surface and secreted molecules.
Sialyltransferases: enzymes that use CMP-Neu5Ac or CMP-Neu5Gc as donors to add Neu5Ac or Neu5Gc to glycolipids and glycoproteins.