Valentin Wittmann
Metabolic engineering of glycoproteins
Glycosylation is a complex form of posttranslational modification and is known to regulate many aspects of protein function. In this project, metabolic glycoengineering is used to incorporate functional groups into the carbohydrate structures of glycoproteins. Subsequently, the carbohydrates can be labeled with fluorescent dyes through bioorthogonal ligation reactions enabling visualization in living cells. In the first funding period, we could already successfully establish the method. Now it will be used to answer a number of biological questions. In cooperation with project A07 we investigate aberrant glycosylation of proteins in Caenorhabditis elegans and together with project B07 we investigate the influence of glycosylation on the function of the mitotic kinesin Kif18A. For this we will develop together with project B08 a new method to detect protein glycosylation within living cells through fluorescence microscopy.