Maria Veiga-da-Cunha

• PhD
• Research Associate at Catholic University of Louvain

Background and Objectives Hexokinase 1 (encoded by HK1) catalyzes the first step of glycolysis, the adenosine triphosphate–dependent phosphorylation of glucose to glucose-6-phosphate. Monoallelic HK1 variants causing a neurodevelopmental disorder (NDD) have been reported in 12 individuals. Methods We investigated clinical phenotypes, brain MRIs, a...

Brucellosis is a worldwide extended zoonosis caused by pathogens of the genus Brucella. While most B. abortus, B. melitensis, and B. suis biovars grow slowly in complex media, they multiply intensely in livestock genitals and placenta indicating high metabolic capacities. Mutant analyses in vitro and in infection models emphasize that erythritol (a...

Neutropenia and neutrophil dysfunction in glycogen storage disease type 1b (GSD1b) and severe congenital neutropenia type 4 (SCN4), associated with deficiencies of the glucose-6-phosphate transporter (G6PT/SLC37A4) and the phosphatase G6PC3, respectively, are the result of the accumulation of 1,5-anhydroglucitol-6-phosphate in neutrophils. This is...

Glycogen storage disease type Ib (GSD1b) is due to a defect in the glucose-6-phosphate transporter (G6PT) of the endoplasmic reticulum, which is encoded by the SLC37A4 gene. This transporter allows the glucose-6-phosphate that is made in the cytosol to cross the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane and be hydrolyzed by glucose-6-phosphatase (G6PC1),...

Background Glycogen storage disease type 1b (GSD1b) is an ultra-rare autosomal recessive disorder, caused by mutations in SLC37A4 gene. Affected patients present with episodes of fasting hypoglycemia and lactic acidosis, hepatomegaly, growth retardation, hyperlipidemia and renal impairment. In addition, patients present neutropenia, neutrophil dysf...

Glycogen storage disease type Ib (GSD-Ib) is an autosomal-recessive inborn error of carbohydrate metabolism, where severe fasting hypoglycemia is associated (among other manifestations) with neutropenia and neutrophil dysfunction (predisposing to recurrent, potentially life-threatening infections) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Granulocyte c...

Transaminases play key roles in central metabolism, transferring the amino group from a donor substrate to an acceptor. These enzymes can often act, with low efficiency, on compounds different from the preferred substrates. To understand what might have shaped the substrate specificity of this class of enzymes, we examined the reactivity of six hum...

Neutropenia and neutrophil dysfunction found in deficiencies in G6PC3 and in the glucose‐6‐phosphate transporter (G6PT/SLC37A4) are due to accumulation of 1,5‐anhydroglucitol‐6‐phosphate (1,5‐AG6P), an inhibitor of hexokinase made from 1,5‐anhydroglucitol (1,5‐AG), an abundant polyol present in blood. Lowering blood 1,5‐AG with an SGLT2 inhibitor g...

Background Besides major clinical/biochemical features, neutropenia and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) constitute common complications of Glycogen storage disease type Ib (GSD Ib). However, their management is still challenging. Although previous reports have shown benefit of empagliflozin administration on neutropenia, no follow-up data on bowel...

Glycogen Storage Disease type 1b (GSDIb) is a genetic disorder with long term severe complications. Accumulation of the glucose analog 1,5-anhydroglucitol-6-phosphate (1,5AG6P) in neutrophils inhibits the phosphorylation of glucose in these cells, causing neutropenia and neutrophil dysfunctions. This condition leads to serious infections and inflam...

Phosphoglucomutase 3 (PGM3) deficiency is a rare congenital disorder of glycosylation. Most of patients with autosomal recessive hypomorphic mutations in PGM3 encoding for phosphoglucomutase 3 present with eczema, skin and lung infections, elevated serum IgE, as well as neurological and skeletal features. A few PGM3-deficient patients suffer from a...

Ethylmalonic acid (EMA) is a major and potentially cytotoxic metabolite associated with short‐chain acyl‐CoA dehydrogenase (SCAD) deficiency, a condition whose status as a disease is uncertain. Unexplained high EMA is observed in some individuals with complex neurological symptoms, who carry the SCAD gene (ACADS) variants, c.625G>A and c.511C>T. Th...

We describe a genetic syndrome due to PGM2L1 deficiency. PGM2 and PGM2L1 make hexose-bisphosphates, like glucose-1,6-bisphosphate, which are indispensable cofactors for sugar phosphomutases. These enzymes form the hexose-1-phosphates crucial for NDP-sugars synthesis and ensuing glycosylation reactions. While PGM2 has a wide tissue distribution, PGM...

N-acetylneuraminate (Neu5Ac), an abundant sugar present in glycans in vertebrates and some bacteria, can be used as an energy source by several prokaryotes, including Escherichia coli. In solution, more than 99% of Neu5Ac is in cyclic form (≈ 92% beta-anomer and ≈ 7% alpha-anomer), whereas < 0.5% is in the open form. The aldolase that initiates Neu...

Neutropenia and neutrophil dysfunction cause serious infections and inflammatory bowel disease in glycogen storage disease Ib (GSD-Ib). Our discovery that accumulating 1,5-anhydroglucitol-6-phosphate causes neutropenia in a G6PC3-deficient mouse model and in the two rare diseases (GSD-Ib and G6PC3-deficiency) led us to repurpose the widely used ant...

Steady-state enzyme kinetics typically relies on the measurement of 'initial rates', obtained when the substrate is not significantly consumed and the amount of product formed is negligible. Although initial rates are usually faster than those measured later in the reaction time-course, sometimes the speed of the reaction appears instead to increas...

It is traditionally assumed that enzymes of intermediary metabolism are extremely specific and that this is sufficient to prevent the production of useless and/or toxic side‐products. Recent work indicates that this statement is not entirely correct. In reality, enzymes are not strictly specific, they often display weak side activities on intracell...

Most fatty acids (FAs) are straight chains and are synthesized by fatty acid synthase (FASN) using acetyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA units. Yet, FASN is known to be promiscuous as it may use methylmalonyl-CoA instead of malonylCoA and thereby introduce methyl-branches. We have recently found that the cytosolic enzyme ECHDC1 degrades ethylmalonyl-CoA and m...

Hundreds of metabolic enzymes work together smoothly in a cell. These enzymes are highly specific. Nevertheless, under physiological conditions, many perform side-reactions at low rates, producing potentially toxic side-products. An increasing number of metabolite repair enzymes are being discovered that serve to eliminate these noncanonical metabo...

Significance Neutropenia presents an important clinical problem in patients with G6PC3 or G6PT deficiency, yet why neutropenia occurs is unclear. We discovered that G6PC3 and G6PT collaborate to dephosphorylate a noncanonical metabolite (1,5-anhydroglucitol-6-phosphate; 1,5AG6P) which is produced when glucose-phosphorylating enzymes erroneously act...

Protein histidine methylation is a rare post-translational modification of unknown biochemical importance. In vertebrates, only a few methylhistidine-containing proteins have been reported, including β-actin as an essential example. The evolutionary conserved methylation of β-actin H73 is catalyzed by an as yet unknown histidine N-methyltransferase...

Cellular membrane lateral organization, in particular the assembly of lipids in domains, is difficult to evaluate at high resolution. Here, we used atomic force microscopy (AFM) to investigate at high-resolution lipid membranes containing variable amounts of sphingomyelin (SM) and cholesterol (Chol), two abundant membrane lipids. To this end, we de...

Protein histidine methylation is rarely studied posttranslational modification of unknown biochemical importance. In vertebrates, only a few methylhistidne-containing proteins have been reported so far, including β-actin as an essential example. The evolutionary conserved methylation of β-actin H73 residue is catalyzed by a specific histidine N -me...

Significance The genomes of the vast majority of eukaryotes encode a protein [named nitrilase-like protein 1 (Nit1) in humans and mice] whose enzymatic function has long been unknown. We show here that the mammalian Nit1 and the corresponding yeast protein efficiently hydrolyze the deaminated form of the common intracellular antioxidant glutathione...

Metabolic enzymes are very specific. However, most of them show weak side activities toward compounds that are structurally related to their physiological substrates, thereby producing side products that may be toxic. In some cases, 'metabolite repair enzymes' eliminating side products have been identified. We show that mammalian glyceraldehyde 3-p...

Key points: Using recombinant DNA technology, the present study provides the first strong and direct evidence indicating that β-alanine is an efficient substrate for the mammalian transaminating enzymes 4-aminobutyrate-2-oxoglutarate transaminase and alanine-glyoxylate transaminase. The concentration of carnosine and anserine in murine skeletal an...

Although cholesterol is essential for membrane fluidity and deformability, the level of its lateral heterogeneity at the plasma membrane of living cells is poorly understood due to lack of appropriate probe. We here report on the usefulness of the D4 fragment of Clostridium perfringens toxin fused to mCherry (theta*), as specific, non-toxic, sensit...

The purpose of the present work was to progress in our understanding of the pathophysiology of L-2-hydroxyglutaric aciduria, due to a defect in L-2-hydroxyglutarate dehydrogenase, by creating and studying a mouse model of this disease. L-2-hydroxyglutarate dehydrogenase-deficient mice (l2hgdh-/-) accumulated L-2-hydroxyglutarate in tissues, most pa...

A good appraisal of the function of enzymes is essential for the understanding of inborn errors of metabolism. However, it is clear now that the 'one gene, one enzyme, one catalytic function' rule oversimplifies the actual situation. Genes often encode several related proteins, which may differ in their subcellular localisation, regulation or funct...

In vertebrates, carnosine synthase (EC 6.3.2.11) and carnosine N-methyltransferase (EC 2.1.1.22) are the intracellular enzymes that catalyze the formation of carnosine (β-alanyl-L-histidine) and its natural methylated derivative - anserine (β-alanyl-N-π-methyl-L-histidine), respectively. Much effort has been devoted to the elucidation of the physio...

Carnosine synthase is the ATP-dependent ligase responsible for carnosine (β-alanyl-histidine) and homocarnosine (γ-aminobutyryl-histidine) synthesis in skeletal muscle and brain, respectively. This enzyme uses also at substantial rates lysine, ornithine and arginine instead of histidine, yet the resulting dipeptides are virtually absent from muscle...

We recently reported that trace insertion of exogenous fluorescent (green BODIPY) analogs of sphingomyelin into living red blood cells partially spread onto coverslips labels submicrometric domains, visible by confocal microscopy. We here extend this feature to endogenous sphingomyelin, upon binding of a sphingomyelin-specific non-toxic fragment of...

Mammalian ACSF4-U26 (Acyl-CoA Synthetase Family Member 4), a protein of unknown function, comprises a putative adenylation-domain (AMP-binding domain) similar to those of bacterial non-ribosomal peptide synthetases, a putative phosphopantetheine attachment site and a C-terminal PQQDH (pyrroloquinoline quinone dehydrogenase)-related domain. Ortholog...

Glutarate, a side-product in the metabolism of tryptophan and lysine, is metabolized by conversion to glutaryl-CoA by a transferase using succinyl-CoA as a coenzyme donor. The enzyme catalyzing this conversion has not been formally identified. However, a benign form of glutaric aciduria (glutaric aciduria type III) is due to mutations in C7orf10, a...

Enzymes of intermediary metabolism are less specific than what is usually assumed: they often act on metabolites that are not their 'true' substrate, making abnormal metabolites that may be deleterious if they accumulate. Some of these abnormal metabolites are reconverted to normal metabolites by repair enzymes, which play therefore a role akin to...

Phosphohydroxylysinuria has been described in two patients with neurological symptoms, but the deficient enzyme or mutated gene has never been identified. In the present work, we tested the hypothesis that this condition is due to mutations in the AGXT2L2 gene, recently shown to encode phosphohydroxylysine phospholyase. DNA analysis from a third pa...

The purpose of the present work was to identify the catalytic activity of AGXT2L1 and AGXT2L2, two closely related, putative pyridoxal-phosphate-dependent enzymes encoded by vertebrate genomes. The existence of bacterial homologues (40-50% identity with AGXT2L1 and AGXT2L2) forming bi- or tri-functional proteins with a putative kinase belonging to...

A limited number of enzymes are known that play a role analogous to DNA proofreading by eliminating non-classical metabolites formed by side activities of enzymes of intermediary metabolism. Because few such "metabolite proofreading enzymes" are known, our purpose was to search for an enzyme able to degrade ethylmalonyl-CoA, a potentially toxic met...

Protein deglycation, a new form of protein repair, involves several enzymes. Fructosamine-3-kinase (FN3K), an enzyme found in mammals and birds, phosphorylates fructosamines on the third carbon of their sugar moiety, making them unstable and causing them to detach from proteins. This enzyme acts particularly well on fructose-epsilon-lysine, both in...

Our goal was to identify the reaction catalyzed by NAT8 (N-acetyltransferase 8), a putative N-acetyltransferase homologous to the enzyme (NAT8L) that produces N-acetylaspartate in brain. The almost exclusive expression of NAT8 in kidney and liver and its predicted association with the endoplasmic reticulum suggested that it was cysteinyl-S-conjugat...

Carnosine (beta-alanyl-L-histidine) and homocarnosine (gamma-aminobutyryl-L-histidine) are abundant dipeptides in skeletal muscle and brain of most vertebrates and some invertebrates. The formation of both compounds is catalyzed by carnosine synthase, which is thought to convert ATP to AMP and inorganic pyrophosphate, and whose molecular identity i...

Due to their high glucose permeability, insulin-secreting pancreatic beta-cells likely undergo strong intracellular protein glycation at high glucose concentrations. They may, however, be partly protected from the glucotoxic alterations of their survival and function by fructosamine-3-kinase (FN3K), a ubiquitous enzyme that initiates deglycation of...

Our purpose was to identify the sequence of omega-amidase, which hydrolyses the amide group of alpha-ketoglutaramate, a product formed by glutamine transaminases. In the Bacillus subtilis genome, the gene encoding a glutamine transaminase (mtnV) is flanked by a gene encoding a putative 'carbon-nitrogen hydrolase'. The closest mammalian homolog of t...

Mammalian GKRP [GK (glucokinase) regulatory protein], a fructose 6-phosphate and fructose 1-phosphate sensitive inhibitor of GK, appears to have resulted from the duplication of a gene similar to bacterial N-acetylmuramate 6-phosphate etherase MurQ. In the present study, we show that several genomes of primitive eukaryotes encode a GKRP-like protei...

The neurometabolic disorder L: -2-hydroxyglutaric aciduria is caused by mutations in a gene present on chromosome 14q22.1 and encoding L: -2-hydroxyglutarate dehydrogenase. This FAD-linked mitochondrial enzyme catalyses the irreversible conversion of L: -2-hydroxyglutarate to alpha-ketoglutarate. The formation of L: -2-hydroxyglutarate results from...

Glucose 1,6-bisphosphate (Glc-1,6-P2) concentration in brain is much higher than what is required for the functioning of phosphoglucomutase, suggesting that this compound has a role other than as a cofactor of phosphomutases. In cell-free systems, Glc-1,6-P2 is formed from 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate and Glc-6-P by two related enzymes: PGM2L1 (phosphog...

Our aim was to identify the product formed by sedoheptulokinase and to understand the mechanism of formation of erythritol in patients with sedoheptulokinase deficiency. Mouse recombinant sedoheptulokinase was found to be virtually specific for sedoheptulose and its reaction product was identified as sedoheptulose 7-phosphate. Assays of sedoheptulo...

The molecular identity of mammalian phosphopentomutase has not yet been established unequivocally. That of glucose-1,6-bisphosphate synthase, the enzyme that synthesizes a cofactor for phosphomutases and putative regulator of glycolysis, is completely unknown. In the present work, we have purified phosphopentomutase from human erythrocytes and foun...

L-2-hydroxyglutaric aciduria is a metabolic disorder in which L-2-hydroxyglutarate accumulates as a result of a deficiency in FAD-linked L-2-hydroxyglutarate dehydrogenase, a mitochondrial enzyme converting L-2-hydroxyglutarate to alpha-ketoglutarate. The origin of the L-2-hydroxyglutarate, which accumulates in this disorder, is presently unknown....

The purpose of this work was to identify the function of bacterial homologues of fructosamine 3-kinase (FN3K), a mammalian enzyme responsible for the removal of fructosamines from proteins. FN3K homologues were identified in approximately 200 (i.e. approximately 27%) of the sequenced bacterial genomes. In 11 of these genomes, from phylogenetically...

FN3K is a recently identified enzyme that phosphorylates both low-molecular-weight and protein-bound fructosamines. Fructosamine 3-phosphates are unstable, breaking down spontaneously to 3-deoxyglucosone, inorganic phosphate and the amino compound that originally reacted with glucose. FN3K is therefore a 'deglycating' enzyme. Evidence has been prov...

Amines, including those present on proteins, spontaneously react with glucose to form fructosamines in a reaction known as glycation. In the present paper, we have explored, through a targeted gene inactivation approach, the role of FN3K (fructosamine 3-kinase), an intracellular enzyme that phosphorylates free and protein-bound fructose-epsilon-lys...

Part of the fructosamines that are bound to intracellular proteins are repaired by fructosamine 3-kinase (FN3K). Because subject-to-subject variations in erythrocyte FN3K activity could affect the level of glycated haemoglobin independently of differences in blood glucose level, we explored if such variability existed, if it was genetically determi...

The biochemical defect in L-2-hydroxyglutaric aciduria is still unknown, but the mutated gene has recently been identified on chromosome 14q22. Transfection of human embryonic kidney (HEK) cells with a cDNA encoding the product of the human gene led to a>15-fold increase in L-2-hydroxyglutarate dehydrogenase activity. The overexpressed enzyme had s...

Background: Part of the fructosamines that are bound to intracellular proteins are repaired by fructosamine 3-kinase (FN3K). Because subject to subject variations in erythrocyte FN3K activity could affect the level of glycated haemoglobin independently of differences in blood glucose level, we explored if such variability existed, if it was genetic...

In addition to its role as carbon and energy source, fructose metabolism was reported to affect other cellular processes, such as biofilm formation by streptococci and bacterial pathogenicity in plants. Fructose genes encoding a 1-phosphofructokinase and a phosphotransferase system (PTS) fructose-specific enzyme IIABC component reside commonly in a...

Glucokinase (GCK) serves as the pancreatic glucose sensor. Heterozygous inactivating GCK mutations cause hyperglycemia, whereas activating mutations cause hypoglycemia. We studied the GCK V62M mutation identified in two families and co-segregating with hyperglycemia to understand how this mutation resulted in reduced function. Structural modeling l...

The purpose of this study was to identify the biochemical and genetic defect in l-2-hydroxyglutaric aciduria, a neurometabolic disorder characterized by the presence of elevated concentrations of l-2-hydroxyglutaric acid in urine, plasma, and cerebrospinal fluid. Evidence is provided for the existence in rat tissues of a FAD-dependent enzyme cataly...

Recent studies indicate that deoxycytidine kinase (dCK), which activates various nucleoside analogues used in antileukemic therapy, can be regulated by post-translational modification, most probably through reversible phosphorylation. To further unravel its regulation, dCK was overexpressed in HEK-293 cells as a His-tag fusion protein. Western blot...

Extracts of frozen rat liver were found to catalyse the formation of 3H2O from DL-2-hydroxy[2-3H]glutarate. Three peaks of enzyme activities were observed on separation by chromatography on DEAE-Sepharose. The first and second peaks corresponded to an enzyme acting on L-2-hydroxyglutarate and the third peak corresponded to an enzyme acting on D-2-h...

We report the identification of the mutations in the only known case of L-3-phosphoserine phosphatase deficiency, a recessively inherited condition. The two mutations correspond to the replacement of the semiconserved Asp32 residue by an asparagine and of the extremely conserved Met52 by a threonine. The effects of both mutations were studied on th...

Glucokinase regulatory protein (GKRP) controls the activity of glucokinase in liver but possibly also in some areas of the central nervous system, suggesting that it could play a role in body mass control. Its gene is located in a region (2p21-23) linked to serum leptin levels. Our goal was to investigate whether mutations in the GKRP gene were ass...

Glucokinase is inhibited in the liver by a regulatory protein (GKRP) whose effects are increased by Fru-6-P and suppressed by Fru-1-P. To identify the binding site of these phosphate esters, we took advantage of the homology of GKRP to the isomerase domain of GlmS (glucosamine-6-phosphatesynthase) and created 12 different mutants of rat GKRP. Mutat...

Glycogen storage disease type 1a (GSD 1a) is caused by a deficiency in microsomal glucose-6-phosphatase (G6Pase). A variant (GSD 1b) is caused by a defect in the transport of glucose-6-phosphate (G6P) into the microsome and is associated with chronic neutropenia and neutrophil dysfunction. Mutually exclusive mutations in the G6Pase gene and the G6P...

Fructose 1-phosphate is a metabolite that plays a regulatory role in liver and is best measured using an assay based on its conversion to fructose 1,6-bisphosphate by a bacterial fructose-1-phosphate kinase (Fru1PK). The open reading frame encoding Escherichia coli Fru1PK has been introduced in an expression plasmid (pET3a) based on the T7 promoter...

Glucose-6-phosphatase is a multicomponent enzymatic system of the endoplasmic reticulum, which catalyses the terminal steps of gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis by converting glucose-6-phosphate to glucose and inorganic phosphate. Glycogen storage diseases type I (GSD I) are a group of metabolic disorders arising from a defect in a component of th...

To identify the amino acids involved in the specific regulatory properties of glucokinase, and particularly its low affinity for glucose, mutants of the human islet enzyme have been prepared, in which glucokinase-specific residues have been replaced. Two mutations increased the affinity for glucose by twofold (K296M) and sixfold (Y214A), the latter...

We report the sequence of a human cDNA encoding a protein homologous to devB (a bacterial gene often found in proximity to the gene encoding glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in bacterial genomes) and to the C-terminal part of human hexose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. The protein was expressed in Escherichia coli, purified and shown to be 6-phosphogl...

The purpose of this work was to test the hypothesis that mutations in the putative glucose 6-phosphate translocase gene would account for most of the cases of GSD I that are not explained by mutations in the phosphohydrolase gene, ie that are not type Ia. Twenty-three additional families diagnosed as having GSD I non-a (GSDIb, Ic or Id) have now be...

Glucokinase (GK), a key enzyme in the glucose homeostatic responses of the liver, changes its intracellular localisation depending on the metabolic status of the cell. Rat liver GK and Xenopus laevis GK, fused to the green fluorescent protein (GFP), concentrated in the nucleus of cultured rat hepatocytes at low glucose and translocated to the cytop...

The serotype-specific, 5.9-kb region II of the Haemophilus influenzae type a capsulation locus was sequenced and found to contain four open reading frames termed acs1 to acs4. Acs1 was 96% identical to H. influenzae type b Orf1, previously shown to have CDP-ribitol pyrophosphorylase activity (J. Van Eldere, L. Brophy, B. Loynds, P. Celis, I. Hancoc...

We report the structure of the human gene encoding the putative glucose 6-phosphate translocase that is mutated in glycogen storage disease type Ib. Northern blots showed that the encoded 2.4 kb mRNA is mainly expressed in liver and in kidney, but is also present, although in barely detectable amounts, in leucocytes. The gene contains nine exons, o...

Glycogen-storage diseases type I (GSD type I) are due to a deficiency in glucose-6-phosphatase, an enzymatic system present in the endoplasmic reticulum that plays a crucial role in blood glucose homeostasis. Unlike GSD type Ia, types Ib and Ic are not due to mutations in the phosphohydrolase gene and are clinically characterized by the presence of...

We report the sequence of a human cDNA that encodes a 46 kDa transmembrane protein homologous to bacterial transporters for phosphate esters. This protein presents at its carboxy terminus the consensus motif for retention in the endoplasmic reticulum. Northern blots of rat tissues indicate that the corresponding mRNA is mostly expressed in liver an...

The sugar-induced inhibition of malolactic fermentation in cell suspensions of Leuconostoc oenos, recently reclassified as Oenococcus oeni (L. M. T. Dicks, F. Dellaglio, and M. D. Collins, Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 45:395-397, 1995) was investigated by in vivo and in vitro nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and manometric techniques. At 2...

gert Matthijis et al. Nature Genet. 16, 88–l92 (1997). There is an error in Table 1 on page 88. For families 4, 5, 9, 27, 31 and 41, mutation 2 should read: 425G/A at the nucleotide level, which corresponds to R141H at the amino acid level. The error does not affect our general conclusions, but results in a different frequency for the mutations R14...

We report the sequence of the cDNA encoding human L-3-phosphoserine phosphatase. The encoded polypeptide contains 225 residues and shows 30% sequence identity with the Escherichia coli enzyme. The human protein was expressed in a bacterial expression system and purified. Similar to known L-3-phosphoserine phosphatases, it catalyzed the Mg2(+)-depen...

Carbohydrate-deficient glycoprotein syndrome type 1 (CDG1 or Jaeken syndrome) is the prototype of a class of genetic multisystem disorders characterized by defective glycosylation of glycoconjugates. It is mostly a severe disorder which presents neonatally. There is a severe encephalopathy with axial hypotonia, abnormal eye movements and pronounced...

In isolated hepatocytes in suspension, the effect of sorbitol but not that of fructose to increase the concentration of fructose 1-phosphate and to stimulate glucokinase was abolished by 2-hydroxymethyl-4-(4-N,N-dimethylamino-1-piperazino)-pyrimidine (SDI 158), an inhibitor of sorbitol dehydrogenase. In hepatocytes in primary culture, fructose was...

We report the sequence of a human cDNA that encodes a 46 kDa transmembrane protein homologous to bacterial transporters for phosphate esters. This protein presents at its carboxy terminus the consensus motif for retention in the endoplasmic reticulum. Northern blots of rat tissues indicate that the corresponding mRNA is mostly expressed in liver an...

Human beta-cell glucokinase and its liver counterpart displayed a half-saturating concentration of glucose (S0.5) of about 8 mmol/l and a Hill coefficient of 1.7, and were as sensitive to inhibition by the rat liver regulatory protein as the rat liver enzyme. These results indicate that the N-terminal region of glucokinase, which differs among thes...

To delineate the regions of liver glucokinase that are involved in the binding of its regulatory protein and have therefore been conserved throughout evolution, we have cloned the cDNA of the Xenopus laevis enzyme. It contains an open reading frame of 1374 nucleotides and encodes a protein of 458 amino acids, which displays 78 and 79% overall ident...

Xenopus liver contains a protein inhibitor of glucokinase that, in contrast to the mammalian regulatory protein of glucokinase, is insensitive to fructose 6-phosphate and fructose 1-phosphate [Vandercammen A. & Van Schaftingen, E. (1993) Biochem. J. 294, 551-556]. The purpose of this work was to compare the primary structure and other properties of...

Glucokinase is one of the four hexokinases present in mammalian tissues. It is expressed in two cell types that have to respond to changes in the blood glucose concentration, the liver parenchymal cell and the beta-cells of pancreatic islets. The former are responsible for the metabolism and storage of an important part of the ingested glucose, whe...

It was recently observed that Leuconostoc oenos GM, a wine lactic acid bacterium, produced erythritol anaerobically from glucose but not from fructose or ribose and that this production was almost absent in the presence of O2. In this study, the pathway of formation of erythritol from glucose in L. oenos was shown to involve the isomerization of gl...