Dolichol: a curriculum cognitionis.

Dolichols were first described about 30 years ago when animal tissues were being examined for the presence of a putative precursor to the polyisoprenoid side chain of ubiquinone. These long-chain 2,3-dihydro-polycis-isoprenoid alcohols are found in all eukaryotic organisms. In many plant tissues they are accompanied by families of other polyisoprenoid alcohols that are usually similar molecules and possess an unsaturated alpha-isoprene residue. Analogy with the role of bactoprenyl phosphates in the synthesis of bacterial wall glycans led to the discovery that the mono- and di-phosphates of dolichols function as cofactors in protein N-glycosylation, involving the formation of glycosylated derivatives of dolichol as intermediates. Variation of the concentration of dolichyl phosphate was shown to be one way of controlling protein N-glycosylation. This can be achieved by modification of the relative activities of dolichol kinase and dolichol phosphate phosphatase. Modulation of the biosynthetic pathway, still not fully understood, of dolichyl phosphate may also be an important factor. Several disease conditions involve aberrations in these pathways.