Interactions between selectins and their oligosaccharide-decorated ligands play a crucial role in the initiation of leukocyte extravasation. We have shown that synthetic multivalent sialyl Lewis x glycans inhibit strongly the adhesion of lymphocytes to endothelium at sites of inflammation. However, enzyme-assisted synthesis of these oligosaccharides si hampered by the lack of sufficient amounts of specific glycosyltransferases. We report here the construction of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains expressing the soluble catalytic ectodomain of rat Gal(beta)1-3/4GlcNac alpha 2,3-sialyltransferase (ST3Ne) fused to the C-terminus of the hsp150 delta-carrier polypeptide. The hsp150 delta-carrier, which is an N-terminal fragmented of a natural secretory protein of yeast, is able to confer secretion-competence to several heterologous proteins, which otherwise remain in the yeast endoplasmic reticulum. The ST3Ne portion of the hsp 150 delta-ST3Ne fusion protein adopted an enzymatically active conformation and was N-glycosylated and disulfide-bonded. Hsp150 delta-ST3Ne was secreted with a half-time of about 7.5 min and remained intercalated in the cell wall, which covers the yeast plasma membrane. About 110 mU of sialyltransferase per litre was produced in 16 h. Whole live yeast cells were able to transfer sialic acid from CMP-NeuNAc to N-acetyllactosamine yielding alpha 2,3-sialyl-N-acetyllactosamine, as evidenced by paper chromatography, cleavage by linkage-specific sialidase, and NMR analysis. Our data suggest that yeast cells externalizing mammalian glycosyltransferases with the aid of the hsp150 delta-carrier could provide a source of enzymes for synthesis of valuable oligosaccharides.
In the salvage pathway of GDP-L-fucose, free cytosolic fucose is phosphorylated by L-fucokinase to form L-fucose-1-phosphate, which is then further converted to GDP-L-fucose in the reaction catalyzed by GDP-L-fucose pyrophosphorylase. We report here the cloning and expression of murine L-fucokinase and GDP-L-fucose pyrophosphorylase. Murine L-fucokinase is expressed as two transcripts of 3057 and 3270 base pairs, encoding proteins of 1019 and 1090 amino acids with predicted molecular masses of 111 kDa and 120 kDa respectively. Only the longer splice variant of L-fucokinase was enzymatically active when expressed in COS-7 cells. Murine GDP-L-fucose pyrophosphorylase has an open reading frame of 1773 base pairs encoding a protein of 591 amino acids with a predicted molecular mass of 65.5 kDa. GDP-L-fucose, the reaction product of GDP-L-pyrophosphorylase, was identified by HPLC and MALDI-TOF MS analysis. The tissue distribution of murine L-fucokinase and GDP-L-fucose pyrophosphorylase was investigated by quantitative real time PCR, which revealed high expression of L-fucokinase and GDP-L-fucose pyrophosphorylase in various tissues. The wide expression of both enzymes can also be observed from the large amount of data collected from a number of expressed sequence tag libraries, which indicate that not only the de novo pathway alone, but also the salvage pathway, could have a significant role in the synthesis of GDP-L-fucose in the cytosol.
L-fucose is a fundamental monosaccharide component of many mammalian glycoproteins and glycolipids. Fucosylation requires GDP-L-fucose as a donor of fucose and a specific fucosyltransferase (Fuc-T) to catalyze the transfer of L-fucose to various lactosamine acceptor molecules. The biosynthesis of GDP-L-fucose consists of two pathways. The constitutively active de novo pathway involves conversion of cellular GDP-D-mannose to GDP-L-fucose by GDP-D-mannose-4,6-dehydratase (GMD) and GDP-4-keto-6-deoxy-D-mannose-3,5-epimerase-4-reductase (FX). In the alternative biosynthetic pathway, in the salvage metabolism, L-fucokinase (Fuk) synthesizes L-fucose-1-phosphate from free fucose. L-fucose-1-phosphate is further catalyzed to GDP-L-fucose by GDP-L-fucose pyrophosphorylase (Fpgt). GDP-L-fucose, synthesized in the cytosol, is translocated to the Golgi for fucosylation by a specific GDP-fucose transporter (FUCT1). Glycans that contain alpha(1,3)-fucosylated modifications, e.g. sialyl Lewis X-type glycans, have an important role in inflammation and in tumorigenesis. We studied the mRNA expression levels of GDP-L-fucose-synthesizing enzymes, GDP-fucose transporter and fucosyltransferase VII by quantitative real-time PCR in mouse endothelial cells, macrophages and lymphoid tumor cells. Moreover, the expression of the same transcripts was detected in acute inflammation using rat kidney allograft as model system. Our results indicate the simultaneous upregulation of the GDP-L-fucose synthesizing enzymes of the de novo pathway, GDP-fucose transporter and fucosyltransferase VII in inflammation and in tumorigenesis.
Extravasation from the blood of malignant tumour cells that form metastasis and leukocytes that go into tissues require contact between selectins and their sialyl Lewis x and sialyl Lewis a (sLe(x) and sLe(a) respectively) decorated ligands. Endothelial cells have been shown to express sLe(x) epitopes in lymph nodes and at sites of inflammation, and this is crucial for the selectin-dependent leukocyte traffic. Besides the ability to synthesize sLe(x) on sialylated N-acetyllactosamine via the action of alpha(1,3)fucosyltransferase(s), endothelial cells can also degrade sLe(x) to Lewis x through the action of alpha(2,3)sialidase(s). In addition, several epithelial tumors possess the machinery to synthesize sLe(x), which facilitates their adhesion to endothelial E- and P-selectin.
In the present experiments the cDNA coding for a truncated form of the 1,6N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase responsible for the conversion of linear to branched polylactosamines in human PA1 cells was expressed in Sf9 insect cells. The catalytic ectodomain of the enzyme was fused to glutathione S-transferase, allowing effective one-step purification of the glycosylated 67-74-kDa fusion protein. Typically a yield of 750 g of the purified protein/liter of suspension culture was obtained. The purified recombinant protein catalyzed the transfer of GlcNAc from UDP-GlcNAc to the linear tetrasaccharide Gal1-4GlcNAc1-3Gal1-4-GlcNAc, converting the acceptor to the branched pentasaccharide Gal1-4GlcNAc1-3(GlcNAc1-6)Gal1-4-GlcNAc as shown by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry, degradative experiments, and 1 H NMR spectroscopy of the product. By contrast, the recombinant enzyme did not catalyze any reaction when incubated with UDP-GlcNAc and the trisaccharide GlcNAc1-3Gal1-4GlcNAc. Accordingly, we call the recombinant 1,6-GlcNAc transferase cIGnT6 to emphasize its action at central rather than peridistal galactose residues of linear polylactosamines in the biosynthesis of blood group I antigens. Taken together this in vitro expression of I-branching enzyme, in combination with the previously cloned enzymes, 1,4galactosyltransferase and 1,3N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase, should allow the general synthesis of polylactosamines based totally on the use of recombinant enzymes.
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