Significance of Complex Sphingolipid Structural Diversity across Eukaryotes through Yeast Molecular Genetics

Complex sphingolipids are essential membrane lipids required for normal growth of eukaryotic cells and are involved in a wide range of cellular functions. In addition to exhibiting remarkable structural diversity within a single organism, complex sphingolipids display distinct structural features among different organisms, including differences in hydrophilic head-group sugar and glycan structures, and such diversity is thought to be necessary for exerting their diverse functions. Molecular genetics of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has made substantial contributions to elucidating the relationship between structure and function of complex sphingolipids. In this review, using S. cerevisiae as a model system, we focus on recent findings obtained through limiting the structural diversity of complex sphingolipids and by replacing them with those from different organisms, highlighting the biological significance of structural diversity in complex sphingolipids.