The Golgi apparatus serves as the major site of glycosylation reactions. Nu
cleotide sugars which are substrates of the Golgi localized glycosyltransfe
rases are synthesized in the cytoplasm (cell nucleus in case of CMP-sialic
acid) and must be transported into the compartment lumen. This transport fu
nction is carried out by nucleotide sugar transporters. The first genes wer
e cloned in the year 1996 and revealed a family of structurally conserved m
ulti-transmembrane-spanning proteins. Due to the high structural and functi
onal conservation, the identification of many putative nucleotide sugar tra
nsporter sequences has become possible in the existing gene data bases and
accelerates the increase in knowledge on structure-function-relationships.
Recent developments in the nucleotide sugar transporter field are discussed
in this article. (C) 2001 Societe francaise de biochimie et biologie molec
ulaire/Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS. All rights reserve
d.