Skip Navigation



Glycobiology Advance Access published online on July 24, 2003
Glycobiology, doi:10.1093/glycob/cwg103
This Article
Right arrow Advance Access manuscript (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
13/10/725    most recent
cwg103v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Snaar-Jagalska, B. E.
Right arrow Articles by Spaink, H. P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Snaar-Jagalska, B. E.
Right arrow Articles by Spaink, H. P.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Submitted on May 8, 2003
Revised on July 8, 2003
Accepted on July 15, 2003

© 2003 Oxford University Press

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Specific activation of ERK pathways by chitin oligosaccharides in embryonic zebrafish cell lines

Boguslawa E. Snaar-Jagalska 1*, Simon F. G. Krens 1, Inmaculada Robina 2, Lai-Xi Wang 3, and Herman P. Spaink 1

1 Institute of Biology, Leiden University, Clusius Laboratory, Wassenaarseweg 64, 2333 AL Leiden, The Netherlands
2 Departamento de Química Orgánica, Facultad de Química, Universidad de Sevilla, Apartado 553, E-41071 Sevilla, Spain
3 Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jagalska{at}rulbim.leidenuniv.nl.

Abstract

Chitin oligosaccharides (COs) play a role in plant development and are presumed to affect body plan formation during vertebrate embryogenesis. The mechanisms of COs recognition and cellular processes underlying embryonic development are still not understood. Here we analyzed the possible link with the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway that is conserved in evolution through the plant and animal kingdom and has been implicated in diverse cellular processes including cell growth, proliferation, differentiation, survival and vertebrate development.

We show that in vivo stimulation of embryonic zebrafish cells ZF13 and ZF29 with chitin tetrasaccharides at 10-9 M concentration transiently induced activation/phosphorylation of ERKs, with a maximum after 15 min. Furthermore, the biological specificity of chitin tetrasaccharides and various derivatives was examined. The replacement of one or two GlcNAc residues of the chitin backbone by glucose and fucosylation of chitin tetrasaccharides at the reducing terminus caused a complete loss of their activity. We also tested a chitin tetrasaccharide analogue in which the oxygen atoms in glycosidic linkages were replaced by sulphur atoms. This analogue, that could not be enzymatically hydrolyzed, was as potent an inducer as chitin tetrasaccharide. These results suggest that the observed activation of ERKs is chitin tetrasaccharide specific and does not require further enzymatic processing. We examined possible signalling pathways leading to ERKs activation by COs by use of phospho-specific antibodies and inhibitors. From this we conclude that a high affinity chitin oligosaccharide receptor system exists which links to the Raf, MEK and ERK pathway in zebrafish cells.


ERK, chitin oligosaccharides, zebrafish cells
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J Exp BotHome page
A. Ronceret, J. Gadea-Vacas, J. Guilleminot, and M. Devic
The alpha-N-acetyl-glucosaminidase gene is transcriptionally activated in male and female gametes prior to fertilization and is essential for seed development in Arabidopsis
J. Exp. Bot., October 1, 2008; 59(13): 3649 - 3659.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 GlycobiologyHome page
Y. Guerardel, L.-Y. Chang, E. Maes, C.-J. Huang, and K.-H. Khoo
Glycomic survey mapping of zebrafish identifies unique sialylation pattern
Glycobiology, March 1, 2006; 16(3): 244 - 257.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.