title: Development of Dictyostelium discoideum is associated with alteration of fucosylated N-glycan structures.
abstract: The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum has become established as a simple model for the examination of cell-cell interactions, and early studies suggested that shifts in glycosylation profiles take place during its life cycle. In the present study, we have applied HPLC and mass spectrometric methods to show that the major N-glycans in axenic cultures of the AX3 strain are oligomannosidic forms, most of which carry core fucose and/or intersecting and bisecting N-acetylglucosamine residues, including the major structure with the composition Man8GlcNAc4Fuc1. The postulated alpha1,3-linkage of the core fucose correlates with the cross-reactivity of Dictyostelium glycoproteins with a horseradish peroxidase antiserum; a corresponding core alpha1,3-fucosyltransferase activity capable of modifying oligomannosidic N-glycans was detected in axenic Dictyostelium extracts. The presence of fucose on the N-glycans and the reactivity to the antiserum, but not the fucosyltransferase activity, are abolished in the fucose-deficient HL250 strain. In later stages of development, N-glycans at the mound and culmination stages show a reduction in both the size and the degree of modification by intersecting/bisecting residues compared with mid-exponential phase cultures, consistent with the hypothesis that glycosidase and glycosyltransferase expression levels are altered during the slime mould life cycle.
authors.affiliation: Department für Chemie, Universität für Bodenkultur, Wien, Austria.
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schiller
authors.forename: Alba
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hykollari
authors.forename: Josef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Voglmeir
authors.forename: Gerald
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pöltl
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hummel
authors.forename: Ebrahim
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Razzazi-Fazeli
authors.forename: Rudolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Geyer
authors.forename: Iain B H
authors.initials: IB
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002237:Carbohydrate Dehydrogenases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002240:Carbohydrate Sequence; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005643:Fucose / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D005647:Fucosyltransferases / Q000378:metabolism; D005856:Germ-Free Life / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D006031:Glycosylation; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D011134:Polysaccharides; D005643:Fucose; D002237:Carbohydrate Dehydrogenases; C020562:GDPmannose dehydrogenase; D005647:Fucosyltransferases