Serendipity, or how working with glycoproteins from Trypanosomatids changed my life (with a little help from my friends)

In this article I am transmitting my own personal experience on how a metabolic step, the transient glucosylation of glycoproteins in the endoplasmic reticulum, was first detected in trypanosomatids because these cells have a simplified pathway of glycoprotein synthesis and processing. Knowledge of the occurrence of this step in trypanosomatids allowed its detection in mammalian, plant as well as fungal cells. Transient glucosylation of glycoproteins has been recently shown to be intimately related to the process by which glycoproteins adopt their final tertiary structure in the endoplasmic reticulum.

Protein N-glycosylation in trypanosomatids. A pathway with odd enzymes at both ends

This review deals with the pathway leading to the synthesis of asparagine-linked oligosaccharides in trypanosomatid protozoa. Special emphasis is put on steps differing from those occurring in mammalian cells