Plant Nucleotide Sugar Formation, Interconversion, and Salvage by Sugar Recycling∗ Maor Bar-Peled1,2 and Malcolm A. O’Neill2 1Department of Plant Biology and 2Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602; email:
[email protected],
[email protected] Annu. Rev. Plant Biol. 2011. 62:127–55 Keywords First published online as a Review in Advance on nucleotide sugar biosynthesis, nucleotide sugar interconversion, March 1, 2011 nucleotide sugar salvage, UDP-glucose, UDP-xylose, The Annual Review of Plant Biology is online at UDP-arabinopyranose mutase plant.annualreviews.org This article’s doi: Abstract 10.1146/annurev-arplant-042110-103918 Nucleotide sugars are the universal sugar donors for the formation Copyright c 2011 by Annual Reviews. by Oak Ridge National Lab on 05/20/11. For personal use only. of polysaccharides, glycoproteins, proteoglycans, glycolipids, and All rights reserved glycosylated secondary metabolites. At least 100 genes encode proteins 1543-5008/11/0602-0127$20.00 involved in the formation of nucleotide sugars. These nucleotide ∗ Annu. Rev. Plant Biol. 2011.62:127-155. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Dedicated to Peter Albersheim for his inspiration sugars are formed using the carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis, and his pioneering studies in determining the the sugar generated by hydrolyzing translocated sucrose, the sugars structure and biological functions of complex carbohydrates. released from storage carbohydrates, the salvage of sugars from glycoproteins and glycolipids, the recycling of sugars released during primary and secondary cell wall restructuring, and the sugar generated during plant-microbe interactions. Here we emphasize the importance of the salvage of sugars released from glycans for the formation of nucleotide sugars.