Tunicamycin

Tunicamycin is mixture of homologous nucleoside antibiotics that inhibits the UDP-HexNAc: polyprenol-P HexNAc-1-P family of enzymes. In eukaryotes, this includes the enzyme GlcNAc phosphotransferase (GPT), which catalyzes the transfer of N-actelyglucosamine-1-phosphate from UDP-N-acetylglucosamine to dolichol phosphate in the first step of glycoprotein synthesis. Tunicamycin blocks the synthesis of all N-linked glycoproteins (N-glycans) and causes cell cycle arrest in G1 phase. It is used as an experimental tool in biology, e.g. to induce unfolded protein response. Tunicamycin is produced by several bacteria, including Streptomyces clavuligerus and Streptomyces Iysosuperficus. There are many different homologues of tunicamycin, so if you are searching for its molecular mass ensure that you are not mixing them up.