Computational analysis of the structure, glycosylation and CMP binding of human ST3GAL sialyltransferases

Abstract

Sialyltransferases (STs) are the fundamental enzymes which are related to many biological processes such as cell signalling, cellular recognition, cell-cell and host-pathogen interactions and metastasis of cancer. All STs catalyse the terminal sialic acid addition from CMP donor to the glycan units. ST3GAL family is one of the most important STs and divided into the six subfamily in mouse and humans which are ST3Gal I, ST3Gal II, ST3Gal III, ST3Gal IV, ST3Gal V, and ST3Gal VI. The members of the ST3GAL family transfer sialic acid to the terminal galactose residues of glycochains through an α2,3-linkage. There are many reports on the ST3GAL function in mammals but, there is a paucity of information about structure of human ST3GAL family. Herein, we investigated the structure, glycosylation and CMP binding site of human ST3GAL family using computational methods. We found for the first time N-glycosylation positions in ST3Gal IV and VI, mucin type glycosylation in ST3Gal III and O-GlcNAcylation in ST3Gal V and their relation with sialylmotifs. In addition, we predicted CMP binding positions of human ST3GAL enzyme family on three-dimensional structure using molecular docking and first demonstrated the sialylmotifs relation with the CMP binding positions in ST3Gal III-VI subfamilies.

Keywords: 3D molecular modelling; CMP ligand binding; Human ST3GAL family; Molecular docking; Sialylmotif; Structural glycobiology.