Role of Glycoproteins during Fruit Ripening and Seed Development.

Angela Mendez-Yañez,Luis Morales-Quintana,Patricio Ramos

doi:10.3390/cells10082095

Angela Mendez-Yañez, Luis Morales-Quintana + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/cells10082095

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Abstract

Approximately thirty percent of the proteins synthesized in animal or plant cells travel through the secretory pathway. Seventy to eighty percent of those proteins are glycosylated. Thus, glycosylation is an important protein modification that is related to many cellular processes, such as differentiation, recognition, development, signal transduction, and immune response. Additionally, glycosylation affects protein folding, solubility, stability, biogenesis, and activity. Specifically, in plants, glycosylation has recently been related to the fruit ripening process. This review aims to provide valuable information and discuss the available literature focused on three principal topics: (I) glycosylations as a key posttranslational modification in development in plants, (II) experimental and bioinformatics tools to analyze glycosylations, and (III) a literature review related to glycosylations in fruit ripening. Based on these three topics, we propose that it is necessary to increase the number of studies related to posttranslational modifications, specifically protein glycosylation because the specific role of glycosylation in the posttranslational process and how this process affects normal fruit development and ripening remain unclear to date.

Highlights

Glycosylation is the process of adding carbohydrates to a protein and is an essential and important process to produce protein posttranslational modification (PTMs) in eukaryotic cells [1]
The biosynthetic pathway of these sugar monomers involved in the glycosylation process overlaps with the biosynthesis of ascorbate as well as with those used for cell wall polysaccharide precursors, including mannose, fucose, xylose, and galactose [3]
The basic molecular machinery participating in protein glycosylation differs slightly between species in which these PTMs occur based on the specificities of some enzyme transferases and hydrolases on the faces of the Golgi in different species

Summary

Introduction

Glycosylation is the process of adding carbohydrates to a protein and is an essential and important process to produce protein posttranslational modification (PTMs) in eukaryotic cells [1]. In plants, glycosylation has been related to the fruit ripening process [4,5,6]. With respect to the biochemical process, glycosylation involves the covalent linkage of a sugar moiety or glycan to a mature protein in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and the Golgi apparatus [7]. The basic molecular machinery participating in protein glycosylation differs slightly between species in which these PTMs occur based on the specificities of some enzyme transferases and hydrolases on the faces of the Golgi in different species. This review critically organizes information from recent years about glycan-specific functions in various biological processes related to fruit development and ripening

Different Glycosylation Types

N-Glycosylations

N-Glycosylation and Plant Development

N-Glycosylation

O-Glycoproteins in Fruits and a World Not Yet Explored

Experimental

Findings

Bioinformatics Glycosylations Tools in Plants