Ceramide glucosyltransferase is an enzyme

Enzyme

Enzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process, called substrates, are converted into different molecules, called products. Almost all chemical reactions in a biological cell need enzymes in order to occur at rates...

 that in humans is encoded by the UGCG gene

Gene

A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...

.

(GSLs) are a group of membrane components that contain lipid and sugar moieties. They are present in essentially all animal cells and are believed to have important roles in various cellular processes. UDP-glucose ceramide glucosyltransferase catalyzes the first glycosylation step in glycosphingolipid biosynthesis. The product, glucosylceramide, is the core structure of more than 300 GSLs. UGCG is widely expressed and transcription is upregulated during keratinocyte differentiation.

Interactions

UGCG has been shown to interact

Protein-protein interaction

Protein–protein interactions occur when two or more proteins bind together, often to carry out their biological function. Many of the most important molecular processes in the cell such as DNA replication are carried out by large molecular machines that are built from a large number of protein...

with .

Further reading