Asparagine Linked Glycosylation Protein 1 (ALG1)

The biosynthesis of lipid-linked oligosaccharides is highly conserved among eukaryotes and is catalyzed by 14 glycosyltransferases in an ordered stepwise manner. Mannosyltransferase I (MT I) catalyzes the first mannosylation step in this process.

HMAT1 encodes a 464-amino acid protein that shares 36% amino acid identity with the S. cerevisiae and C. elegans gene products. HMAT1 contains a hydrophobic region at the N terminus followed by short hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions. HMAT1 complemented the temperature-sensitive phenotype of a yeast strain lacking functional MT I due to an ALG1 mutation, indicating that the function of this enzyme is conserved between yeast and human.