Enzyme Activity Measurement of N-Acetyllactosaminide 3-Alpha-Galactosyltransferase

Creative Enzymes always performs remarkably in the enzyme service industry. The advanced instruments, professional experts, and skillful operations build up our advantages which distinguish Creative Enzymes from our competitors. We are specialized in custom activity assays for transferases, including the N-acetyllactosaminide 3-alpha-galactosyltransferase.

UDP-galactose β-galactosyl α-1,3-galactosyltransferase (α3GT, EC 2.4.1.87, formerly EC 2.4.1.124 and EC 2.4.1.151), a member of glycosyltransferase (GT) family 6, is a retaining GT that catalyzes the transfer of galactose from UDP-α-D-galactose into an α-1,3 linkage with β-galactosyl groups in glycoconjugates. The catalytic reaction needs UDP as a cofactor as well as some divalent cations such as Mn²⁺ and Mg²⁺.

α3GT and its products are present in most mammals, but active forms of the enzyme are not produced by humans because of inactivating mutations. The lack of its products, collectively designated as the α-Gal epitope, results in the production of natural antibodies directed toward them. Such antibodies act as a defense mechanism against infection by pathogenic microorganisms and viruses but are also a barrier to xenotransplantation of organs from species that have active forms of α3GT. In recent studies, structures of the wild-type α3GTs and their mutants have been determined, which helped to look insight of the biological information in glycobiology on the structural basis of their specificity and catalytic activities. Furthermore, studies also performed on immune responses which are related to human disease. However, activity measurement becomes a gap between research and industrialization because of the easy loss in enzyme activity. For example, mutants from Bos Taurus are not stable under assay conditions. To solve this problem, Creative Enzymes has developed rapid and precise assays to determine the activity before it drops substantially.

Figure: The crystal structure of alpha-1,3 galactosyltransferase in complex with UDP-2F-galactose
Reference: Jamaluddin H et al. J Mol Biol. 2007 369(5): 1270-1281.

Creative Enzymes promises to constrain every test with high standards and profession protocols. Our assay services were never complained by the customers, showing high quality and satisfaction rates in the enzyme service industry. In the future, the growing experiences of Creative Enzymes will better support your research on transferases.