title: Removal of 106 amino acids from the N-terminus of UDP-GlcNAc: alpha-3-D-mannoside beta-1,2-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase I does not inactivate the enzyme.
abstract: UDP-GlcNAc: alpha-3-D-mannoside beta-1,2-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase I (GnTI, EC 2.4.1.101) plays an essential role in the conversion of oligomannose to complex and hybrid N-glycans. Rabbit GnTI is 447 residues long and has a short four-residue N-terminal cytoplasmic tail, a 25-residue putative signal-anchor hydrophobic domain, a stem region of undetermined length and a large C-terminal catalytic domain, a structure typical of all glycosyltransferases cloned to date. Comparison of the amino acid sequences for human, rabbit, mouse, rat, chicken, frog and Caenorhabditis elegans GnTI was used to obtain a secondary structure prediction for the enzyme which suggested that the location of the junction between the stem and the catalytic domain was at about residue 106. To test this hypothesis, several hybrid constructs containing GnT I with N- and C-terminal truncations fused to a mellitin signal sequence were inserted into the genome of Autographa californica nuclear polyhedrosis virus (AcMNPV), Sf9 insect cells were infected with the recombinant baculovirus and supernatants were assayed for GnTI activity. Removal of 29, 84 and 106 N-terminal amino acids had no effect on GnTI activity; however, removal of a further 14 amino acids resulted in complete loss of activity. Western blot analysis showed strong protein bands for all truncated enzymes except for the construct lacking 120 N-terminal residues indicating proteolysis or defective expression or secretion of this protein. The data indicate that the stem is at least 77 residues long.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sarkar
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pagny
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Unligil
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Joziasse
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mucha
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Glössl
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schachter
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D016367:Baculoviridae / Q000235:genetics; D001665:Binding Sites; D015153:Blotting, Western; D004789:Enzyme Activation; D006801:Humans; D007313:Insecta; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017351:N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D011817:Rabbits; D051381:Rats; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D017351:N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferases; C024850:alpha-1,3-mannosyl-glycoprotein beta-1,2-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase I