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Protein trafficking

Spike glycosylation and palmitoylation trafficking

Tien CF, Tsai WT, Chen CH, et al. · iScience · 2022

Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC

Glycosylation motifs and cysteine palmitoylation steer SARS-CoV-2 spike maturation, Golgi trafficking, and fusion.

Study at a glance

Design
Animal / in-vitro — Mutagenesis and 2BP inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 spike glycosylation/palmitoylation trafficking
N
Cell-based spike trafficking/fusion assays — no single primary analytic N
Population
Cells expressing wild-type or mutant SARS-CoV-2 spike
Outcome
Spike intracellular trafficking, packaging, and ACE2-mediated fusion

Structured fields used in claim comparison tables when every cited study has a complete layer.

Key findings

LYQD mutants altered S2 glycosylation mobility; palmitoylation at cysteine clusters I/II was required for efficient S pp/virus production, Golgi/plasma-membrane targeting, and cell fusion.

Methodology

Mutated LYQD and cysteine clusters in SARS-CoV-2 S, inhibited palmitoylation with 2BP, and tracked glycosylation, localization, packaging, and ACE2-mediated fusion.

Limitations

Not a clinical antiviral trial; much work uses S pseudoviruses rather than full virus genetics for every assay.

How this study connects

Role on claims

Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.

  • SupportsProtein traffickingconcept

    Multiple empirical papers in this library examine protein trafficking with mechanistic biological findings.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

  • SupportsProtein traffickingconcept

    LYQD mutants altered S2 glycosylation mobility; palmitoylation at cysteine clusters I/II was required for efficient S pp/virus production, Golgi/plasma-membrane targeting, and cell fusion.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

  • SupportsProtein traffickingconcept

    Systems and scales differ across protein trafficking studies (species, tissues, methods), so mechanisms should not be over-generalised.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

  • SupportsWestern Blotmethod

    SARS-CoV-2 spike LYQD mutants changed S2 glycosylation mobility, and palmitoylation at cysteine clusters I/II was required for efficient particle production, Golgi/plasma-membrane targeting, and ACE2-mediated fusion (2-bromopalmitate inhibition). Mobility shifts on S2 are a western-style glycosylation readout; much of the work uses spike pseudoviruses rather than full-virus genetics for every assay.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

  • SupportsWestern Blotmethod

    Westerns here answer different biochemical questions. Caveolar work asks which subunits co-purify; N–p50 asks which domain is required for association and HR; USP8 asks whether Smo is ubiquitinated; spike work asks whether glycan occupancy and palmitoylation change S2 mobility and trafficking. A darker band is not a universal 'more protein' story across those designs.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

  • Enteroid polarity reversed within hours without BME, with β1 integrin orienting apical pathogen access. Spike LYQD mutants altered S2 glycosylation mobility, and palmitoylation at cysteine clusters I/II was required for Golgi/plasma-membrane targeting and ACE2-mediated fusion. Those localisation phenotypes are IF/trafficking stains; enteroids are not a clinical gut, and much spike work uses pseudoviruses.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

  • Permeabilized-sperm SNARE timing and live epithelial polarity/spike trafficking disagree about how much native membrane regulation is still present. In-vitro sperm may miss in-vivo layers; enteroids and pseudovirus spike assays only approximate infection of a human airway or gut.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

  • SupportsFlow Cytometrymethod

    Two papers barely use flow cytometry as the core method. Spike glycosylation/palmitoylation trafficking used LYQD and cysteine-cluster mutants plus 2-bromopalmitate, scoring S2 mobility, packaging and ACE2 fusion — cell-based trafficking, not a leukocyte panel. Naegleria fowleri work assembled an ~30 Mb AT-rich genome and listed pathogenicity candidates that still need infection-model tests.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

  • SupportsFlow Cytometrymethod

    Foxp3+ gating is a means to an epigenetic comparison (TSDR demethylation versus unstable induced Foxp3), whereas spike and Naegleria papers are trafficking genetics and a genome assembly. Treating every hit as a flow-cytometry methods paper hides those mismatches.

    Evidence for the claim as stated.

Open questions

Tensions this paper is part of

From concept pages' “where studies disagree.” Disagreement means the same question; scope means different assays, populations, or outcomes.

Related papers in this topic

Same topic cluster — not a recommendation engine.