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Elisa Fadda @elisafadda.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Isn't it amazing when a fresh new preprint is out on Friday? 😎🥳 Check out the fabulous work by @beatricetropea.bsky.social who gives us a clear mechanistic explanation behind the 'peculiar' structure of the LLO donor preferentially chosen by eukaryotic OST 🤓😍 doi.org/10.64898/202...

Figure 1. Structural overview of the yeast OST complex and donor-binding site. (a) 3D structure of the yeast OST complex embedded in the ER membrane (brown sticks), showing the 8 subunits as surface color coded according to the labels. The lipid-linked oligosaccharide (LLO) donor is shown in orange and the backbone of the acceptor peptide is shown with a cartoon representation in yellow. The central panel shows the 2D SNFG representation of the LLO donor, with labels specifying glycosidic linkages and the nomenclature used for the branches. Below we show the sequence of an acceptor peptide, i.e. YJR1_N99, used as substrate in all MD simulations in this work, where the target asparagine was previously characterised as efficiently glycosylated(Khaleque et al. 2025). (b) Close-up view of the donor-binding pocket from the cryo-EM structure (PDB ID: 8AGC), showing the resolved LLO donor represented in sticks (orange) and SNFG symbols and the Stt3 N539 glycan (white). (c) Close-up view of the donor-binding pocket from the 3D model used in the MD simulations with the reconstructed N-glycans. The monosaccharides resolved in the cryo-EM structure are shown in white and orange as in panel b, whereas the monosaccharides added in the reconstruction of the full LLO donor and N539 glycan are highlighted in dark orange and grey, respectively. Rendering with Visual Molecular Dynamics (Humphrey, Dalke and Schulten 1996) (VMD) (https://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/).

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GlycoShape @glycoshape.org · 17/07/2026

The fully glucosylated LLO structure is the preferred substrate of eukaryotic OST, especially engineered to enhance N-glycosylation efficiency; but how does that work? and why do we need all those glucoses? @beatricetropea.bsky.social answers all these Q in a new preprint ⬇️ doi.org/10.64898/202...

doi.org

How the terminal glucoside of the N-glycan donor affects the catalytic efficiency of the eukaryotic oligosaccharyltransferase

The eukaryotic oligosaccharyltransferase (OST) is the enzyme responsible for initiating N-glycosylation of secreted proteins by transferring a pre-assembled lipid-linked oligosaccharide (LLO) donor to...

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Elisa Fadda @elisafadda.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

A fab, sunshiny week in 🇩🇰! Great #glycotime 🧪 at the CBM16 in Helsingør, with posters Bea: regulation of N-glycosylation by OST (doi.org/10.1101/2025...) Silvia: Siglec-6 high-recision recognition of glycolipids (doi.org/10.1038/s420...) Ojas: de novo binders design (doi.org/10.64898/202...) 🧵⬇️

From the left, Elisa, Ojas, Bea and Silvia. Blue skies above Helsingor, Denmark for the CMB16

Silvia (left) introducing her work on Siglec 6 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-026-09609-8) in a flash talk at CBM16

Elisa (small with red jumper in the left corner) presenting GlycoShape in her "work along" part of the talk, with people in the audience rebuilding the glycosylation of IL5 on GlycoShape ReGlyco

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GlycoShape @glycoshape.org · 19/03/2026

Super congratulation to Dr Akash Satheesan from the glycoShape team, who graduated officially today with a PhD @maynoothuniversity.ie !! 😎🎓👏🥳🥂 The 🔺-red gown definitely suits you well Akash! 😍

PhD graduation photo of Dr Akash Satheesan. From the left Beatrice Tropea, Akash (showing his well deserved parchment), Ojas Singh and Silvia D'Andrea

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Elisa Fadda @elisafadda.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

@beatricetropea.bsky.social presenting our new work with @benschulz.bsky.social (fresh 2-hand 🧵 below ⬇️) on the regulation of N-glycosylation efficiency by eukaryotic OST @CECAM meeting in Cagliari, Italy 🎉😎

Beatrice Tropea left starting her presentation on the screen in the podium

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Ben Schulz @benschulz.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Super excited by our new #glycotime preprint! A long-term project from my group with awesome collaborator @elisafadda.bsky.social Regulation of N-glycosylation efficiency by eukaryotic oligosaccharyltransferase www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... thread below 👇

media.tenor.com

a cartoon drawing of a pitcher and cup of sugar on a table

ALT: a cartoon drawing of a pitcher and cup of sugar on a table

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Elisa Fadda @elisafadda.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Wonderful 10 days in Brisbane setting up shop with @benschulz.bsky.social for Bea @beatricetropea.bsky.social and doing a small bit of sightseeing🐨. Time to head back now, thank you Ben for the hospitality, and @Bea, remember that you will have to come back!! 😂😂❤️🇦🇺

Ben's lab + friends group photo having a beverage at St Lucy UQ

Bea and I celebrating the bank holiday Monday with some lovely drinkies on the South Bank

Beautiful white and yellow frangipani flowers I picked up (every day) from the ground

Sleepy koala at Lonepine Koala Sanctuary

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Elisa Fadda @elisafadda.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Today the glycotour brought me to UQ, where I gave a seminar about all the fabulous things you can do with glycoshape.org 🍬 and where @beatricetropea.bsky.social will be staying for a month hosted by @benschulz.bsky.social to do some fantastic #glycotime 🎉❤️🦃🇦🇺

View through the portico (light brown stone) that frames UQ quad

Left walkway around the quad with columns framing the green with trees

Me (left) and Ben (right) on the 'metro', new transport launched in Brisbane yesterday (note: it's a bus) 🤭

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