Thrombospondin type 1 repeats (TSRs) are biologically important domains of extracellular proteins. They are modified with a unique Glc1,3Fuc␣1-O-linked disaccharide on either serine or threonine residues. Here we identify the putative glycosyltransferase, B3GTL, as the 1,3-glucosyltransferase involved in the biosynthesis of this disaccharide. This enzyme is conserved from Caenorhabditis elegans to man and shares 28% sequence identity with Fringe, the 1,3-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase that modifies O-linked fucosyl residues in proteins containing epidermal growth factor-like domains, such as Notch. 1,3-Glucosyltransferase glucosylates properly folded TSR-fucose but not fucosylated epidermal growth factor-like domain or the non-fucosylated modules. Specifically, the glucose is added in a 1,3-linkage to the fucose in TSR. The activity profiles of 1,3-glucosyltransferase and protein O-fucosyltransferase 2, the enzyme that carries out the first step in TSR O-fucosylation, superimpose in endoplasmic reticulum subfractions obtained by density gradient centrifugation. Both enzymes are soluble proteins that efficiently modify properly folded TSR modules. The identification of the 1,3-glucosyltransferase gene allows us to manipulate the formation of the rare Glc1,3Fuc␣1 structure to investigate its biological function.
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