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Record W4415706878 · doi:10.1073/pnas.2512460122

WrtF from <i>Rhizobium tropici</i> CIAT 899 is a GT-A fold fucosyltransferase that binds its donor nonproductively

2025· article· en· W4415706878 on OpenAlexafffund
Taylor J. B. Forrester, Sicheng Lin, Todd L. Lowary, Matthew S. Kimber

Bibliographic record

VenueProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2025
Typearticle
Languageen
FieldBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
TopicGlycosylation and Glycoproteins Research
Canadian institutionsUniversity of AlbertaUniversity of GuelphMcGill University
FundersNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of CanadaCanadian Glycomics NetworkCanadian Institutes of Health Research
KeywordsFucosyltransferaseGlycosyltransferaseMonosaccharideTetrasaccharideTrisaccharideGlycosyl donorAnomerGlycobiology

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

CIAT 899. We show that WrtF transfers l-fucose from its donor, guanosine 5'-diphospho-β-l-fucose (GDP-Fuc), to a nonreducing end glucose, creating an α-(1→4) linkage. We determined structures of WrtF at resolutions between 1.45 and 2.3 Å in the apo state, and in complex with GDP, GDP-Fuc, nonacetylated and acetylated trisaccharide acceptors, and with a tetrasaccharide product. WrtF has an N-terminal glycosyltransferase A (GT-A) fold and a unique C-terminal α-helical bundle domain. The structures, combined with activity assays, and sequence analysis show that WrtF is unusual in using neither divalent cations nor basic residues to coordinate and stabilize the donor pyrophosphate. In contrast to almost all previously characterized GT-A glycosyltransferases that use α-linked donors that present the donor monosaccharide axially, GDP-Fuc presents its monosaccharide equatorially. GDP-Fuc binds in a compact conformation with the l-fucose endocyclic oxygen and C6 methyl packed against ribose C5 and C4, respectively. This binding mode paradoxically shields the anomeric carbon from attack; superposition of the donor and acceptor complexes suggests that these substrates would sterically hinder one another and do not appropriately orient to form a Michaelis complex. We therefore propose that the donor l-fucose must reorient in the active site prior to turnover. The preferred occluded donor binding mode may serve to "prescreen" GDP-Fuc from structurally similar candidate donors, while also minimizing counterproductive donor hydrolysis.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.000
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.000
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Bench or experimental · Consensus signal: Bench or experimental
GenreCandidate signal: Empirical · Consensus signal: Empirical
Teacher disagreement score0.004
Threshold uncertainty score0.008

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0000.000
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0010.000
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0000.000
Bibliometrics0.0000.000
Science and technology studies0.0000.000
Scholarly communication0.0000.000
Open science0.0000.000
Research integrity0.0000.000
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0010.001

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.034
GPT teacher head0.310
Teacher spread0.277 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designBench or experimental
Domainnot available
GenreEmpirical

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations1
Published2025
Admission routes2
Has abstractyes

Explore more

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