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Published on: April 13, 2019
Functional expression of a human GDP-L-fucose transporter in Escherichia coli
Karin Förster-Fromme1, Sarah Schneider1, Georg A Sprenger1
1Institute of Microbiology, Universität Stuttgart, Allmandring 31, 70569, Stuttgart, Germany.
Objectives:
To investigate the translocation of nucleotide-activated sugars from the cytosol across a membrane into the endoplasmatic reticulum or the Golgi apparatus which is an important step in the synthesis of glycoproteins and glycolipids in eukaryotes.
Results:
The heterologous expression of the recombinant and codon-adapted human GDP-L-fucose antiporter gene SLC35C1 (encoding an N-terminal OmpA-signal sequence) led to a functional transporter protein located in the cytoplasmic membrane of Escherichia coli. The in vitro transport was investigated using inverted membrane vesicles. SLC35C1 is an antiporter specific for GDP-L-fucose and depending on the concomitant reverse transport of GMP. The recombinant transporter FucT1 exhibited an activity for the transport of 3H-GDP-L-fucose with a Vmax of 8 pmol/min mg with a Km of 4 µM. The functional expression of SLC35C1 in GDP-L-fucose overproducing E. coli led to the export of GDP-L-fucose to the culture supernatant.
Conclusions:
The export of GDP-L-fucose by E. coli provides the opportunity for the engineering of a periplasmatic fucosylation reaction in recombinant bacterial cells.
