Genomic and proteomic structures of various subtypes of human OGT and OGA. (
gene mapping and structure. (
) Primary protein structure of three subforms of human OGT. Subtype. (
) Advanced structures of human OGT in 3D and its PTMs. The advanced structure of OGA is displayed in cartoon and surface form with 5M7R in the protein data bank by PyMOL Molecular Graphics System, v2.5.2 (Schrödinger, LLC, New York, NY, USA). The various post-translational modification sites of OGT are present. These predicted modification sites are derived from the PhosphoSitePlus database (
, (accessed on 10 March 2022). (
gene mapping and structure. (
) Primary protein structure of three subforms of human OGA. Subtype. (
) Advanced structures of human OGA in 3D and its PTMs.
Oga is highly conserved in eukaryotic species, especially in mammals, but absent in prokaryotes and yeast
[106][46].
Oga is mapped to chromosome 10 (10q24.32) as a single gene copy
[107][47]. It is selectively spliced to produce ncOGA and sOGA, which are different at different carboxyl terminals
[87][30]. Gene and protein structures of OGA are shown in
Figure 3D,E. Cell fractionation analysis showed that ncOGA was mainly located in the cytoplasm, while the sOGA subtype existed in the nucleus
[108][48]. ncOGA contains the amino-terminal catalytic domain and the central stalk domain and the carboxyl-terminal pseudo-HAT domain linked through two highly disordered (or low complexity) regions
[109][49]. The amino-terminal catalytic domain of OGA is the GlcNAc hydrolysis domain with sequence homology to GH84
[110][50]. The stalk domain is a hinged region containing multiple alpha helices
[111][51]. It is not conserved between species, which makes it a flexible region that facilitates the folding of the entire protein
[112][52]. Although it has been reported that the HAT-like domain of ncOGA in mice has histone acetyltransferase activity in vitro, it has not been supported by more studies in vivo for lacking the critical residues for the binding of acetyl-coenzyme A
[113][53]. However, the HAT-like domain is evolutionarily conserved, indicating that the pseudo-HAT domain may play an important role in the deglycosylation-associated functions
[114][54]. sOGA lacks the HAT-like domain but contains 15 unique amino acid residues at the carboxyl terminal
[115][55]. Interestingly, it has been reported that sOGA has higher hydrolytic activity in vitro. OGA preferentially removes GlcNAc from some sites, indicating that it has an equal cooperative relationship with OGT in regulating the replacement of
O-GlcNAcylation
[116][56]. The active form of OGA appears as homodimer
[117][57]. OGA forms a homodimer in the form of arm to arm, in which the glycoside hydrolase domain of each monomer is covered by the stalk domain of another monomer, thus forming a potential substrate-binding cleft comprising conserved hydrophobic residues
[97][40]. The glycopeptide of the
O-GlcNAcylated protein is tightly bound in the substrate-binding cleft through the abundant GlcNAc contacts of the catalytic pocket in OGA, which involves the peptide side chain and the backbone interactions with cleft surface residues
[118][58]. Meanwhile, OGA recognizes the specific characteristics of substrate peptides and hydrolyzes GlcNAc from a wide range of peptide sequences
[119][59]. In addition, some specific residues on OGA contribute to its interaction with different peptide substrates, which means the differential regulation of
O-GlcNAcylation on various proteins
[120][60]. OGA is also affected by PTMs such as phosphorylation and
O-GlcNAcylation
[121][61]. There are abundant phosphorylation and ubiquitination sites in the domains of glycoside hydrolase and the HAT-like domain
[7][9], but the effect of these modifications at corresponding sites on OGA activity remains to be further determined. The advanced structure of OGA and the sites modified by various PTMs are shown in
Figure 3F. The
O-GlcNAcylation of OGA at Ser
405 is located in the central highly disordered region, suggesting a role in the regulation of OGA-OGT interactions because this is the binding region of OGA-OGT
[122][62]. OGA is also SUMOylated at Lys
358 and acetylated at Lys
599, respectively
[7,123][9][63].
Extracellular glucose is transported into the intracellular via GLUT-4
[124][64]. Only 2~3% of the intracellular glucose enters the HBP, while most of the remaining intracellular glucose enters the glycolysis, pentose phosphate pathway (PPP), glycogen synthesis and even polyol pathways, respectively
[125][65]. Therefore, the
O-GlcNAcylation cycle is strictly controlled by the flow of glucose through the HBP
[126][66]. Initially, in a study, intracellular glucose was phosphorylated to Glc-6-P by HK, and then Glc-6-P was further isomerized to Fru-6-P by GPI
[127][67]. Subsequently, 3~5% of Fru-6-P was added with an amino group from glutamine to synthesize GlcN-6-P and glutamate by GFAT, while the other 95% of Fru-6-P was used for glycolysis
[128][68]. The enzymatic reaction is the rate-limiting step of HBP, and GFAT is also the key rate-limiting enzyme of HBP
[129][69]. The activity of GFAT is still regulated by multiple pathways
[130][70]. Firstly, the activity of GFAT is regulated by substrate availability, which is positively activated by the concentration of glucose and glutamine, and the negative feedback is inhibited by the concentration of UDP-GlcNAc and GlcN-6-P
[131][71]. The activity of GFAT is also closely related to some PTMs. The Ser
243 of GFAT is phosphorylated and its activity is reduced by AMPK, mTORC2 and CaMKII, and a similar effect is also caused by 2-Deoxy-D-glucose
[132,133][72][73]. PKA also promotes the phosphorylation of GFAT at Ser
205/235 [134][74]. Succinylation of GFAT at Lys
529, acetylation of GFAT at Lys
114, 547, 650 and multiple ubiquitination Lys sites of GFAT are predicted by PhosphoSitePlus
® v6.6.0.2 (
https://www.phosphosite.org, accessed on 10 March 2022). Meanwhile, it has been reported that specificity protein 1, activating transcription factor 4 and X-box-binding protein 1 regulate GFAT at the transcriptional level
[135,136][75][76]. Glutamine is necessary for this enzymatic reaction, but this restriction can be bypassed by glucosamine as an extended supplement
[137][77]. Therefore, incubating cells with glucosamine or high concentration glucose or glutamine can bypass the rate-limiting step catalyzed by GFAT, thereby increasing global
O-GlcNAcylation. GNA converts GlcNAc-6-P using acetyl-CoA
[138][78]. Then, GlcNAc-6-P is catalytically translocated to GlcNAc-1-P by AGM
[139][79]. It is worth noting that the only difference of HBP in prokaryotes is that GlcN-6-P is isomerized to GlcN-1-P and then GlcN-1-P is acetylated to form GlcNAc-1-P
[140][80]. The HBP process in eukaryotes is as shown above. Finally, UTP is then utilized by UAP to convert GlcNAc-1-P into UDP-GlcNAc and release iPPi
[141][81]. The HBP process involves the participation of glucose, glutamine, uridine, acetyl-CoA and ATP
[29][82]. Therefore, UDP-GlcNAc, as the end-product of HBP, integrates the metabolisms of carbohydrates, amino acids, fats and nucleotides
[142][83]. UDP-GlcNAc is a unique donor of
O-GlcNAcylation, which provides GlcNAc, which is necessary and irreplaceable for
O-GlcNAcylation
[143][84]. GlcNAc provided by UDP-GlcNAc is used and transferred by OGT to the oxygen atom of the hydroxyl group of serine or threonine residues of the target protein
[54][85]. On the contrary, the GlcNAc moiety is removed from
O-GlcNAcylated proteins by OGA
[144][86]. These hydrolyzed GlcNAc or other free GlcNAc obtained by lysosomal or nutrient degradation are converted to GlcNAc-6-P through N-Acetylglucosamine kinase (NAGK) and then used again for the synthesis of UDP-GlcNAc
[145][87]. Therefore, GlcNAc can also bypass the rate-limiting step of HBP and GFAT, which is also effective for salvage pathways such as glucosamine and glutamine
[146][88]. In addition, UDP-GlcNAc is also used as a substrate for the synthesis of proteoglycans, hyaluronic acid, glycolipids, GPI anchor,
N-glycosylation and other
O-glycosylation
[147][89]. The activated UDP-GlcNAc is utilized by concentration-sensitive enzymes in the nucleus, cytoplasm and membrane to glycosylate the substrate or generate glucose conjugates
[147][89]. UDP-GlcNAc is actively transported by nucleotide sugar transporters to cellular organelles, such as the ER and Golgi apparatus
[148][90]. The differences in UDP-GlcNA permeability and relative cell volume of these organelles complicate the estimation of the cytoplasmic and nuclear concentrations of UDP-GlcNAc
[149][91]. The relative abundance of
O-GlcNAcylation is roughly negatively correlated with the more complex glycans
[150][92]. These characteristics make UDP-GlcNAc and its derivatives extremely sensitive to the variations in cellular nutrients, so that the dynamic
O-GlcNAcylaion can be used as a reporter of the functional status of multiple pathways and regarded as a metabolic sensor
[24][20]. Meanwhile, the mutual conversion and complex relationship of the intermediate products in the HBP, polyol pathway, PPP, glycogen, glycolysis and TCA cycle intermediates greatly enlarge the nutritional sensitivity of
O-GlcNAcylation
[151][93] and also suggest the potential mechanism of
O-GlcNAcylaion’s negative feedback regulation of these glucose metabolism branches. Indeed,
O-GlcNAcylation is involved in multiple modes of metabolic regulation. Almost all the enzymes involved in glycolysis were identified to have been modified by
O-GlcNAcylation
[152][94]. The
O-GlcNAcylated enzymes exist in every step of glycolysis, including GLUT4, HK, GPI, PFK, FBA, GAPDH, PGK, PDM, ENO, PK and PDC
[59,153,154,155][95][96][97][98]. Glycogen synthesis is also regulated by
O-GlcNAcylated GSK3β, and PPP activity is affected by
O-GlcNAcylated G6PD
[156,157][99][100]. In addition, increased HBP flux and
O-GlcNAcylation also promotes fatty acid oxidation in the heart and adipose tissue
[158][101]. The
O-GlcNAylation of several transcription factors, such as PGC1α, FoxO3, NF-κB and CREB, also indirectly participates in transcriptional regulation of metabolism
[159,160,161][102][103][104]. Although only briefly shown in
Figure 4, it is worth noting that almost all enzymes in the TCA cycle are also modified by
O-GlcNAcylation, such as AH, IDH, KGD, SL, SDH, MDH and the several subunits of respiratory chain complexes
[162,163][105][106]. CS and FH may be potentially
O-GlcNAcylatied, but there is still a lack of supporting evidence
[152][94].