title: Using CRISPR-Cas9 to quantify the contributions of O-glycans, N-glycans and Glycosphingolipids to human leukocyte-endothelium adhesion.
abstract: There is often interest in dissecting the relative contributions of the N-glycans, O-glycans and glycosphingolipids (GSLs) in regulating complex biological traits like cell signaling, adhesion, development and metastasis. To address this, we developed a CRISPR-Cas9 toolkit to selectively truncate each of these commonly expressed glycan-types. Here, O-glycan biosynthesis was truncated by knocking-out Core 1 β3Gal-T Specific Molecular Chaperone (COSMC), N-glycans by targeting the β1,2 GlcNAc-transferase (MGAT1) and GSLs by deleting UDP-glucose ceramide glucosyltransferase (UGCG). These reagents were applied to reveal the glycoconjugates regulating human myeloid cell adhesion to selectins under physiological shear-flow observed during inflammation. These functional studies show that leukocyte rolling on P- and L-selectin is ablated in cells lacking O-glycans, with N-glycan truncation also increasing cell rolling velocity on L-selectin. All three glycan families contributed to E-selectin dependent cell adhesion with N-glycans contributing to all aspects of the leukocyte adhesion cascade, O-glycans only being important during initial recruitment, and GSLs stabilizing slow cell rolling and the transition to firm arrest. Overall, the genome editing tools developed here may be broadly applied in studies of cellular glycosylation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical &Biological Engineering and Clinical &Translational Research Center, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA.
authors.forename: Gino
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stolfa
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical &Biological Engineering and Clinical &Translational Research Center, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA.
authors.forename: Nandini
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mondal
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical &Biological Engineering and Clinical &Translational Research Center, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA.
authors.forename: Yuqi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical &Biological Engineering and Clinical &Translational Research Center, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA.
authors.forename: Xinheng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical &Biological Engineering and Clinical &Translational Research Center, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Buffone
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical &Biological Engineering and Clinical &Translational Research Center, State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA.
authors.forename: Sriram
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Neelamegham
mesh_terms: D064113:CRISPR-Cas Systems; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D005964:Glucosyltransferases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D006028:Glycosphingolipids / Q000378:metabolism*; D061307:Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology; D017351:N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000378:metabolism*; D019087:Selectins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D006028:Glycosphingolipids; D011134:Polysaccharides; D019087:Selectins; D005964:Glucosyltransferases; C561128:MGAT1 protein, human; D017351:N-Acetylglucosaminyltransferases; C023246:ceramide glucosyltransferase