Thymidine diphosphate glucose (often abbreviated dTDP-glucose or TDP-glucose) is a nucleotide-linked sugar consisting of deoxythymidine diphosphate linked to

glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecular formula , which is often abbreviated as Glc. It is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. It is mainly made by plants and most algae d ...

. It is the starting compound for the syntheses of many deoxysugars.

Biosynthesis

DTDP-glucose is produced by the enzyme glucose-1-phosphate thymidylyltransferase and is synthesized from dTTP and glucose-1-phosphate.

Pyrophosphate In chemistry, pyrophosphates are phosphorus oxyanions that contain two phosphorus atoms in a linkage. A number of pyrophosphate salts exist, such as disodium pyrophosphate () and tetrasodium pyrophosphate (), among others. Often pyrophosphates a ...

is a byproduct of the reaction.

Uses within the cell

DTDP-glucose goes on to form a variety of compounds in nucleotide sugars metabolism. Many bacteria utilize dTDP-glucose to form exotic sugars that are incorporated into their

lipopolysaccharide Lipopolysaccharide (LPS), now more commonly known as endotoxin, is a collective term for components of the outermost membrane of the cell envelope of gram-negative bacteria, such as '' E. coli'' and ''Salmonella'' with a common structural archit ...

s or into

secondary metabolites Secondary metabolites, also called ''specialised metabolites'', ''secondary products'', or ''natural products'', are organic compounds produced by any lifeform, e.g. bacteria, archaea, fungi, animals, or plants, which are not directly involved ...

such as

antibiotics An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting pathogenic bacteria, bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the therapy ...

. During the syntheses of many of these exotic sugars, dTDP-glucose undergoes a combined oxidation/reduction reaction via the enzyme dTDP-glucose 4,6-dehydratase, producing dTDP-4-keto-6-deoxy-glucose.

References

{{Nucleotide sugars Biochemistry Nucleotides Monosaccharides