The α1,6-Fucosyltransferase Gene (fut8) from the Sf9 Lepidopteran Insect Cell Line: Insights into fut8 Evolution

Abstract

The core alpha1,6-fucosyltransferase (FUT8) catalyzes the transfer of a fucosyl moiety from GDP-fucose to the innermost asparagine-linked N-acetylglucosamine residue of glycoproteins. In mammals, this glycosylation has an important function in many fundamental biological processes and although no essential role has been demonstrated yet in all animals, FUT8 amino acid (aa) sequence and FUT8 activity are very well conserved throughout the animal kingdom. We have cloned the cDNA and the complete gene encoding the FUT8 in the Sf9 (Spodoptera frugiperda) lepidopteran cell line. As in most animal genomes, fut8 is a single-copy gene organized in different exons. The open reading frame contains 12 exons, a characteristic that seems to be shared by all lepidopteran fut8 genes. We chose to study the gene structure as a way to characterize the evolutionary relationships of the fut8 genes in metazoans. Analysis of the intron-exon organization in 56 fut8 orthologs allowed us to propose a model for fut8 evolution in metazoans. The presence of a highly variable number of exons in metazoan fut8 genes suggests a complex evolutionary history with many intron gain and loss events, particularly in arthropods, but not in chordata. Moreover, despite the high conservation of lepidoptera FUT8 sequences also in vertebrates and hymenoptera, the exon-intron organization of hymenoptera fut8 genes is order-specific with no shared exons. This feature suggests that the observed intron losses and gains may be linked to evolutionary innovations, such as the appearance of new orders.

The fucomic potential of mosquitoes: Fucosylated N-glycan epitopes and their cognate fucosyltransferases

“…The high abundance of core α1,6-fucosylated N-glycans examined in neutral and anionic PNGase F released N-glycan pools, emphasises the in vivo activity of mosquito core α1,6-fucosyltransferases. Other insect homologues have been identified and characterised from D. melanogaster (Paschinger et al, 2005b) as well as lepidopteran sources (Sf9 cells, Bombyx mori ) (Juliant et al, 2014, Ihara et al, 2014). The excellent activity of the An.…”

Unveiling the Impact of the Genomic Architecture on the Evolution of Vertebrate microRNAs

“…This phenomenon is well illustrated by the primate-specific miR-625 encoded within FUT8 ( Figure 1B ). This host gene is a fucosyltransferase well-conserved throughout animals ( Costache et al, 1997 ; Juliant et al, 2014 ) that catalyzes fucosylation of glycoproteins, which is essential for activating growth factor receptors ( Liu et al, 2011 ), while its deletion has lethal effects in mice ( Wang et al, 2005 ). FUT8 is ubiquitously expressed in human tissues ( Mele et al, 2015 ) and miR-625 seems to follow its host expression pattern ( Figure 1B ).…”