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Pathway: chitin biosynthesis

Biochemical pathways in S. cerevisiae are manually curated and maintained in the YeastPathways database. This page summarizes the genes, enzymes, and metabolites involved in the pathway, along with the curated literature.

Pathway Name
chitin biosynthesis
Pathway ID
PWY3O-15
SGD ID
SGD:S000249753
Genes
CHS1 | CHS2 | CHS3
Chemical Compounds
UDP(3-) | UDP-N-acetyl-alpha-D-glucosamine(2-) | chitin

Pathway Diagram

Diagram of the pathway from YeastPathways. Click "View interactive diagram at YeastPathways" for the zoomable, clickable version.

chitin biosynthesis pathway diagram

View interactive diagram at YeastPathways

Pathway Summary

Chitin, a linear polymer of N-acetyl glucosamine (GlcNAc) residues joined by beta-(1,4) linkages, is a minor but essential structural component of fungal cell walls. The majority (90%) of chitin in the cell wall is synthesized by chitin synthase III (CSIII), one of the three chitin synthases in S. cerevisiae (as reviewed in Each of the three chitin synthases (CSI, CSII, and CSIII) are nonessential, but the lack of all three leads to cell lethality ( The genes encoding the catalytic subunits of CSI, CSII, and CSIII are CHS1, CHS2, and CHS3, respectively. Skt5p (Chs4Cal2Csd4) has been shown to physically interact with Chs3p, and is indispensable for its enzymatic activity in vivo ( Chitin is deacetylated to form chitosan, a component of the yeast spore wall (ascospore).

Genes Involved

Genes whose products participate in this pathway, with their systematic names, EC numbers (where the gene product is an enzyme with an assigned EC number), and the gene's SGD description.

GeneSystematic NameEC NumberDescription
CHS1 YNL192W 2.4.1.16 Chitin synthase I
CHS2 YBR038W 2.4.1.16 Chitin synthase II
CHS3 YBR023C 2.4.1.16 Chitin synthase III

Functional Networks

Functional Networks show how the genes in this pathway work together: a graph linking the pathway to its genes and their shared GO biological-process terms and phenotype observables, and the GO-CAM causal activity models that involve these genes.

Shared Annotations

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GO-CAMs

GO-CAM (Gene Ontology Causal Activity Model) pathway models that involve the genes in this pathway. A gene can participate in more than one model, so use the dropdown to switch between them; the model for this pathway is shown by default.

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GO Enrichment

Gene Ontology biological-process terms enriched among the genes in this pathway, computed with GO Term Finder. Terms are shown with the number of pathway genes annotated to them and the corrected p-value.

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References

List of references used specifically to curate the information on this page.

Resources

YeastPathways