TY  - JOUR
KW  - Cell metabolism
KW  -  inorganic polyphosphates
KW  -  phosphate
KW  -  post translational modification
KW  -  signalling
TI  - Inorganic polyphosphate in mammals: where's Wally?
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1042/BST20190328
AV  - public
JF  - Biochemical Society Transactions
N1  - This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images
or other third party material in this article are included in the Creative Commons license,
unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license,
users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this
license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
ID  - discovery10091801
Y1  - 2020/02/12/
VL  - 2020
A1  - Desfougères, Y
A1  - Saiardi, A
A1  - Azevedo, C
N2  - Inorganic polyphosphate (polyP) is a ubiquitous polymer of tens to hundreds of orthophosphate residues linked by high-energy phosphoanhydride bonds. In prokaryotes and lower eukaryotes, both the presence of polyP and of the biosynthetic pathway that leads to its synthesis are well-documented. However, in mammals, polyP is more elusive. Firstly, the mammalian enzyme responsible for the synthesis of this linear biopolymer is unknown. Secondly, the low sensitivity and specificity of available polyP detection methods make it difficult to confidently ascertain polyP presence in mammalian cells, since in higher eukaryotes, polyP exists in lower amounts than in yeast or bacteria. Despite this, polyP has been given a remarkably large number of functions in mammals. In this review, we discuss some of the proposed functions of polyP in mammals, the limitations of the current detection methods and the urgent need to understand how this polymer is synthesized.
ER  -