Tunicamycin | ER stress inducer

Tunicamycin (11089-65-9) is a fermentation product from Streptomyces lysosuperificus.  Provided as a mixture of tunicamycin A (C14), B (C15), C (C16) and D (C17) homologs varying in the number of carbon atoms in the fatty acid chain.   The structure shown is for tunicamycin B (the C15 homolog).  Tunicamycin is a potent inhibitor of GlcNAc phosphotransferase which thereby inhibits glycoprotein biosynthesis.¹ Causes endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced autophagy² and unfolded protein response³. Tunicamycin arrests cell cycle in late G₁.⁴

References/Citations:

1) Langan et al. (1991), Isoprenoids and astroglial cell cycling: diminished mevalonate availability and inhibition of dolichol-linked glycoprotein synthesis arrest cycling through distinct mechanisms;  J. Cell Physiol., 149 284
2) Ding et al. (2007), Differential effects of endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced autophagy on cell survival;  J. Biol. Chem., 282 4702
3) Jiang et al. (2007), Tunicamycin sensitizes human melanoma cells to tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis inducing ligand-induced apoptosis by up-regulation of TRAIL-R2 via the unfolded protein response; Cancer Res., 67 5880
4) Ishii et al. (1987), Dolichol-linked glycoprotein synthesis in G1 is necessary for DNA synthesis in synchronized primary cultures of cerebral glia;  J. Neurochem., 49 1606