Glycobiology Advance Access originally published online on November 24, 2004
Glycobiology 2005 15(4):335-346; doi:10.1093/glycob/cwi017
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Glycobiology vol. 15 no. 4 © Oxford University Press 2004; all rights reserved.
Functional analysis of Drosophila ß1,4-N-acetlygalactosaminyltransferases
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Waksman Institute, and Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway NJ 08854
1 To whom correspondence should be addressed; e-mail: irvine{at}waksman.rutgers.edu
Received on July 26, 2004; revised on October 26, 2004; accepted on November 18, 2004
Members of the mammalian ß1,4-galactosyltransferase family are among the best studied glycosyltransferases, but the requirements for all members of this family within an animal have not previously been determined. Here, we describe analysis of two Drosophila genes, ß4GalNAcTA (CG8536) and ß4GalNAcTB (CG14517), that are homologous to mammalian ß1,4-galactosyltransferases. Like their mammalian homologs, these glycosyltransferases use N-acetylglucosamine as an acceptor substrate. However, they transfer N-acetylgalactosamine rather than galactose. This activity, together with amino acid sequence similarity, places them among a group of recently identified invertebrate ß1,4-N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferases. To investigate the biological functions of these genes, null mutations were generated by imprecise excision of a transposable element (ß4GalNAcTA) or by gene-targeted homologous recombination (ß4GalNAcTB). Flies mutant for ß4GalNAcTA are viable and fertile but display behavioral phenotypes suggestive of essential roles for GalNAc-ß1,4-GlcNAc containing glycoconjugates in neuronal and/or muscular function. ß4GalNAcTB mutants are viable and display no evident morphological or behavioral phenotypes. Flies doubly mutant for both genes display only the behavioral phenotypes associated with mutation of ß4GalNAcTA. Thus Drosophila homologs of the mammalian ß4GalT family are essential for neuromuscular physiology or development but are not otherwise required for viability, fertility, or external morphology.
Key words: ß1,4-galactosyltransferase / behavior / development / CG8531 / Notch
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