UGCG

UDP-glucose ceramide glucosyltransferase
Identifiers
Symbols	UGCG ; GCS; GLCT1
External IDs	OMIM: 602874 MGI: 1332243 HomoloGene: 37763 IUPHAR: 2528 ChEMBL: 2063 GeneCards: UGCG Gene
EC number	2.4.1.80
Gene ontology Molecular function • ceramide glucosyltransferase activity Cellular component • Golgi membrane • membrane • integral component of membrane Biological process • sphingolipid metabolic process • glucosylceramide biosynthetic process • glycosphingolipid metabolic process • glycosphingolipid biosynthetic process • epidermis development • small molecule metabolic process • positive regulation of protein targeting to mitochondrion Sources: Amigo / QuickGO
RNA expression pattern
More reference expression data
Orthologs
Species	Human	Mouse
Entrez	7357	22234
Ensembl	ENSG00000148154	ENSMUSG00000028381
UniProt	Q16739	O88693
RefSeq (mRNA)	NM_003358	NM_011673
RefSeq (protein)	NP_003349	NP_035803
Location (UCSC)	Chr 9: 111.9 – 111.94 Mb	Chr 4: 59.19 – 59.22 Mb
PubMed search

Ceramide glucosyltransferase is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the UGCG gene.^[1][2][3]

Glycosphingolipids (GSLs) are a group of membrane components that contain lipid and sugar moieties. They are present in essentially all animal cells and are believed to have important roles in various cellular processes. UDP-glucose ceramide glucosyltransferase catalyzes the first glycosylation step in glycosphingolipid biosynthesis. The product, glucosylceramide, is the core structure of more than 300 GSLs. UGCG is widely expressed and transcription is upregulated during keratinocyte differentiation.^[3]

Interactions

UGCG has been shown to interact with RTN1 .^[4]

References

1. Ichikawa S, Sakiyama H, Suzuki G, Hidari KI, Hirabayashi Y (Jul 1996). "Expression cloning of a cDNA for human ceramide glucosyltransferase that catalyzes the first glycosylation step of glycosphingolipid synthesis". Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 93 (10): 4638–43. Bibcode:1996PNAS...93.4638I. doi:10.1073/pnas.93.10.4638. PMC 39331. PMID 8643456.
2. Ichikawa S, Ozawa K, Hirabayashi Y (Jun 1998). "Assignment of a UDP-glucose:ceramide glucosyltransferase gene (UGCG) to human chromosome band 9q31 by in situ hybridization". Cytogenet Cell Genet 79 (3–4): 233–4. doi:10.1159/000134731. PMID 9605861.
3. "Entrez Gene: UGCG UDP-glucose ceramide glucosyltransferase".
4. Di Sano, Federica; Fazi Barbara; Citro Gennaro; Lovat Penny E; Cesareni Gianni; Piacentini Mauro (Jul 2003). "Glucosylceramide synthase and its functional interaction with RTN-1C regulate chemotherapeutic-induced apoptosis in neuroepithelioma cells". Cancer Res. (United States) 63 (14): 3860–5. ISSN 0008-5472. PMID 12873973.

Further reading

• Kohyama-Koganaya A, Hirabayashi Y (2002). "[Role of glucosylceramide synthase as negative regulator for ceramide]". Tanpakushitsu Kakusan Koso 47 (4 Suppl): 470–5. PMID 11915344.
• Matsuo N, Nomura T, Imokawa G (1992). "A rapid and simple assay method for UDP-glucose:ceramide glucosyltransferase". Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1116 (2): 97–103. doi:10.1016/0304-4165(92)90105-4. PMID 1533793.
• Ichikawa S, Sakiyama H, Suzuki G, et al. (1996). "Expression cloning of a cDNA for human ceramide glucosyltransferase that catalyzes the first glycosylation step of glycosphingolipid synthesis". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 93 (22): 12654. doi:10.1073/pnas.93.22.12654. PMC 38048. PMID 8901638.
• Watanabe R, Wu K, Paul P, et al. (1998). "Up-regulation of glucosylceramide synthase expression and activity during human keratinocyte differentiation". J. Biol. Chem. 273 (16): 9651–5. doi:10.1074/jbc.273.16.9651. PMID 9545298.
• Tepper AD, Diks SH, van Blitterswijk WJ, Borst J (2000). "Glucosylceramide synthase does not attenuate the ceramide pool accumulating during apoptosis induced by CD95 or anti-cancer regimens". J. Biol. Chem. 275 (44): 34810–7. doi:10.1074/jbc.M005142200. PMID 10945987.
• Ogretmen B, Schady D, Usta J, et al. (2001). "Role of ceramide in mediating the inhibition of telomerase activity in A549 human lung adenocarcinoma cells". J. Biol. Chem. 276 (27): 24901–10. doi:10.1074/jbc.M100314200. PMID 11335714.
• Strausberg RL, Feingold EA, Grouse LH, et al. (2003). "Generation and initial analysis of more than 15,000 full-length human and mouse cDNA sequences". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 99 (26): 16899–903. Bibcode:2002PNAS...9916899M. doi:10.1073/pnas.242603899. PMC 139241. PMID 12477932.
• Di Sano F, Fazi B, Citro G, et al. (2003). "Glucosylceramide synthase and its functional interaction with RTN-1C regulate chemotherapeutic-induced apoptosis in neuroepithelioma cells". Cancer Res. 63 (14): 3860–5. PMID 12873973.
• Grazide S, Terrisse AD, Lerouge S, et al. (2004). "Cytoprotective effect of glucosylceramide synthase inhibition against daunorubicin-induced apoptosis in human leukemic cell lines". J. Biol. Chem. 279 (18): 18256–61. doi:10.1074/jbc.M314105200. PMID 14766899.
• Norris-Cervetto E, Callaghan R, Platt FM, et al. (2004). "Inhibition of glucosylceramide synthase does not reverse drug resistance in cancer cells". J. Biol. Chem. 279 (39): 40412–8. doi:10.1074/jbc.M404466200. PMID 15263008.
• Gerhard DS, Wagner L, Feingold EA, et al. (2004). "The status, quality, and expansion of the NIH full-length cDNA project: the Mammalian Gene Collection (MGC)". Genome Res. 14 (10B): 2121–7. doi:10.1101/gr.2596504. PMC 528928. PMID 15489334.
• Turzanski J, Grundy M, Shang S, et al. (2005). "P-glycoprotein is implicated in the inhibition of ceramide-induced apoptosis in TF-1 acute myeloid leukemia cells by modulation of the glucosylceramide synthase pathway". Exp. Hematol. 33 (1): 62–72. doi:10.1016/j.exphem.2004.10.005. PMID 15661399.
• Sun NN, Fastje CD, Wong SS, et al. (2005). "Dose-dependent transcriptome changes by metal ores on a human acute lymphoblastic leukemia cell line". Toxicology and industrial health 19 (7–10): 157–63. doi:10.1191/0748233703th185oa. PMID 15747776.
• Rual JF, Venkatesan K, Hao T, et al. (2005). "Towards a proteome-scale map of the human protein-protein interaction network". Nature 437 (7062): 1173–8. Bibcode:2005Natur.437.1173R. doi:10.1038/nature04209. PMID 16189514.
• Fazi B, Melino S, Di Sano F, et al. (2006). "Cloning, expression, and preliminary structural characterization of RTN-1C". Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 342 (3): 881–6. doi:10.1016/j.bbrc.2006.02.036. PMID 16500619.