Phosphatidylinositol Glycan T (PIGT)

PIGT encodes a protein that is involved in glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchor biosynthesis. The GPI-anchor is a glycolipid found on many blood cells and serves to anchor proteins to the cell surface. This protein is an essential component of the multisubunit enzyme, GPI transamidase. GPI transamidase mediates GPI anchoring in the endoplasmic reticulum, by catalyzing the transfer of fully assembled GPI units to proteins. Several transcript variants encoding different isoforms have been found for this gene.Pigt is not required for GPI synthesis but is essential for attachment of GPI to proteins. During the GPI attachment process, GPI transamidase forms a carbonyl intermediate with the precursor protein, and in the absence of Pigt, the carbonyl intermediate was not generated.