How to make a glycoinositol phospholipid anchor

Abstract

Essentially all eukaryotic cells express proteins on their surface that are anchored by a glycoinositol phospholipid. This anchor moiety may endow such proteins with unusual properties. The definition of the biosynthetic path that constructs these anchors is now in its final stages. Mutations that interrupt this path are, remarkably, compatible with survival of cells in culture, but are associated with at least one human disease.