Biosynthesis of oligosaccharide components of cryptococcus laurentii cell wall

Molecular Aspects of Yeast Morphogenesis

“…Recently Lehle & Tanner (106) showed that mannose, mannobiose, and manno triose can function in their system as mannosyl acceptors from GDP-mannose, as was reported earlier for an enzyme from Cryptococcus (154). This finding is all the more interesting since Ballou and his co-workers have recently obtained a series of yeast mutants, each of which manufactures a defective mannan that lacks one or the other of the different linkages in the side chains (Figure 4; see also 3,10,145,148).…”

Biosynthesis of cell walls of fungi.

“…The enzyme system isolated from Hansenula species catalyzes the formation of-both N-glycosidically and O-glycosidically linked carbohydrate moieties (40) with the participation of dolichol monophosphate as the lipid intermediate (42,43). A particulate enzyme system isolated from Cryptococcus laurentii catalyzes the transfer of mannose from GDP-mannose to endogenous as well as to exogenous low-molecular-weight acceptors with the formation of a-1,2-, a-1,3-, and a-1,6-mannosyl linkages and a mannosyl-xylosyl linkage (225,226). In the same system UDPxylose and UDP-galactose serve as the donors of xylosyl (227) and galactosyl (211) units for the formation of cell wall heteropolysaccharides.…”