Episode 1179
Glycogen branching enzyme
Sun, 2020-Jul-26 00:57 UTC
Length - 3:00
Direct Link
Welcome to random Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of a random Wikipedia page every day.
The random article for Sunday, 26 July 2020 is Glycogen branching enzyme.
1,4-alpha-glucan-branching enzyme, also known as brancher enzyme or glycogen-branching enzyme is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the GBE1 gene. Glycogen branching enzyme is an enzyme that adds branches to the growing glycogen molecule during the synthesis of glycogen, a storage form of glucose. More specifically, during glycogen synthesis, a glucose 1-phosphate molecule reacts with uridine triphosphate (UTP) to become UDP-glucose, an activated form of glucose. The activated glucosyl unit of UDP-glucose is then transferred to the hydroxyl group at the C-4 of a terminal residue of glycogen to form an α-1,4-glycosidic linkage, a reaction catalyzed by glycogen synthase. Importantly, glycogen synthase can only catalyze the synthesis of α-1,4-glycosidic linkages. Since glycogen is a readily mobilized storage form of glucose, the extended glycogen polymer is branched by glycogen branching enzyme to provide glycogen breakdown enzymes, such as glycogen phosphorylase, with many terminal residues for rapid degradation. Branching also importantly increases the solubility and decreases the osmotic strength of glycogen. The protein encoded by this gene is a glycogen branching enzyme that catalyzes the transfer of alpha-1,4-linked glucosyl units from the outer end of a glycogen chain to an alpha-1,6 position on the same or a neighboring glycogen chain. Branching of the chains is essential to increase the solubility of the glycogen molecule and, consequently, in reducing the osmotic pressure within cells. The highest levels of this enzyme are found in liver and muscle cells. Mutations in this gene are associated with glycogen storage disease type IV (also known as Andersen's disease).
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:57 UTC on Sunday, 26 July 2020.
For the full current version of the article, see Glycogen branching enzyme on Wikipedia.
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This has been Brian Standard. Thank you for listening to random Wiki of the Day.
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