title: A novel variant form of murine beta-1, 6-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase forming branches in poly-N-acetyllactosamines.
abstract: A novel form of murine beta-1,6-N:-acetylglucosaminyltransferase that forms branches in poly-N:-acetyllactosamines (designated as IGnT B) was cloned based on sequence homology to the known IGnT (designated as IGnT A). When expressed as proteins, IGnT B showed higher specific activity than IGnT A. The C-terminal 1/4 of IGnT B was identical to that of IGnT A, while the rest of the predicted sequences showed 63% identity. Genomic analysis indicated that IGnT A and IGnT B were derived by alternative splicing; the unique portion was encoded by exon 1, and the common portion was encoded by exons 2 and 3. IGnT B showed an expression profile closely related to that of IGnT A and was strongly expressed in the liver, kidney and intestine, and moderately in the mammary gland, submaxially gland, embryonic stem cells, and embryonal carcinoma cells. The specificity of IGnT B examined using various substrates was indistinguishable from that of IGnT A, which is classified as the central acting IGnT (cIGnT). Thus, IGnT B acted on Galbeta1-4GlcNAcbeta1-3Galbeta1-4Glc, but not on GlcNAcbeta1-3Galbeta1-4Glc. It formed branches in both of the internal galactosyl residues of Galbeta1-4Glc-NAcbeta1-3Galbeta1-4GlcNAcbeta1-++ +3Galbeta1-4Glc, and prolonged incubation resulted in production of the di-branched oligosaccharide. Although addition of sialic acid to the terminal galactosyl residue did not abolish the acceptor activity, alpha2-6 sialylation was a preferred one as compared to alpha2-3 sialylation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Nagoya University School of Medicine, 65 Tsurumai-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya 466-8550, Japan.
authors.forename: G Y
authors.initials: GY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kurosawa
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Muramatsu
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002236:Carbohydrate Conformation; D002240:Carbohydrate Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D014644:Genetic Variation; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017351:N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013379:Substrate Specificity
chemical_list: D011134:Polysaccharides; C037199:poly-N-acetyllactosamine; C106501:N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase IGnT; D017351:N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferases