The Biosynthesis of Brain Gangliosides — Evidence for a “Transient Pool” and an “End Product Pool” of Gangliosides

Abstract

Incubation of sugar nucleotides with brain membranes in which endogenous, incomplete gangliosides are glycosylated, and addition of sugars to exogenous acceptors indicated the same pathway of synthesis of gangliosides (for a review, see Caputto et al. 1974; 1976). An exception was the pathway of completion of GDlb, for which a different route was worked out using endogenous (Arce et al., 1971) or exogenous acceptors (Cumar et al., 1971; 1972). The pathway of synthesis found for GTlb (Arce et al., 1971) was recently confirmed by using exogenous acceptors (Mestrallet et al., 1974).