Development of a universal glycosyltransferase assay amenable to high-throughput formats

The development of a general 1-Zn(II) nucleoside diphosphate (NDP) sensor assay for rapid evaluation of glycosyltransferase (GT) activity is described. The 1-Zn(II) NDP sensor assay offers submicromolar sensitivity, compatibility with both purified enzymes and crude cell extracts, and exquisite selectivity for NDPs over the corresponding NDP-sugars. Thus, the 1-Zn(II) NDP sensor assay is anticipated to offer broad applicability in the context of GT engineering and characterization.