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Updated: Mar 29, 2026

Identification and Characterization of Protein Glycosylation using Specific Endo- and Exoglycosidases
Published on: December 26, 2011
The cytoplasmic peptide:N-glycanase (NGLY1) - Structure, expression and cellular functions
Tadashi Suzuki1, Chengcheng Huang1, Haruhiko Fujihira1
1Glycometabolome Team, Systems Glycobiology Research Group, RIKEN-Max Planck Joint Research Center, Global Research Cluster, RIKEN, 2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.
Abstract:
NGLY1/Ngly1 is a cytosolic peptide:N-glycanase, i.e. de-N-glycosylating enzyme acting on N-glycoproteins in mammals, generating free, unconjugated N-glycans and deglycosylated peptides in which the N-glycosylated asparagine residues are converted to aspartates. This enzyme is known to be involved in the quality control system for the newly synthesized glycoproteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In this system, misfolded (glyco)proteins are retrotranslocated to the cytosol, where the 26S proteasomes play a central role in degrading the proteins: a process referred to as ER-associated degradation or ERAD in short. PNGase-mediated deglycosylation is believed to facilitate the efficient degradation of some misfolded glycoproteins. Human patients harboring mutations of NGLY1 gene (NGLY1-deficiency) have recently been discovered, clearly indicating the functional importance of this enzyme. This review summarizes the current state of our knowledge on NGLY1 and its gene product in mammalian cells.
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