Salty and sweet: protein glycosylation in Haloferax volcanii

Ever since the discovery of the first glycosylated archaeal protein, namely the Halobacterium salinarum surface-layer glycoprotein some 35 years ago, research on haloarchaea has been at the forefront of efforts to decipher the archaeal version of N-glycosylation, a universal post-translational modification. Now, with the availability of sufficient numbers of genome sequences and the development of appropriate experimental tools, the possibility for detailed molecular analysis of archaeal N-glycosylation pathways is being realized, using haloarchaeal species as model systems. In this chapter, current understanding of N-glycosylation in Archaea and the contribution of studies on Haloferax volcanii to such endeavors are described.