title: The underestimated N-glycomes of lepidopteran species.
abstract: Insects are significant to the environment, agriculture, health and biotechnology. Many of these aspects display some relationship to glycosylation, e.g., in case of pathogen binding or production of humanised antibodies; for a long time, it has been considered that insect N-glycosylation potentials are rather similar and simple, but as more species are glycomically analysed in depth, it is becoming obvious that there is indeed a large structural diversity and interspecies variability.
  
  
  
  Using an off-line LC-MALDI-TOF MS approach, we have analysed the N-glycomes of two lepidopteran species (the cabbage looper Trichoplusia ni and the gypsy moth Lymantria dispar) as well as of the commonly-used T. ni High Five cell line.
  
  
  
  We detected not only sulphated, glucuronylated, core difucosylated and Lewis-like antennal fucosylated structures, but also the zwitterion phosphorylcholine on antennal GlcNAc residues, a modification otherwise familiar from nematodes; in L. dispar, N-glycans with glycolipid-like antennae containing α-linked N-acetylgalactosamine were also revealed.
  
  
  
  The lepidopteran glycomes analysed not only display core α1,3-fucosylation, which is foreign to mammals, but also up to 5% anionic and/or zwitterionic glycans previously not found in these species.
  
  
  
  The occurrence of anionic and zwitterionic glycans in the Lepidoptera data is not only of glycoanalytical and evolutionary interest, but is of biotechnological relevance as lepidopteran cell lines are potential factories for recombinant glycoprotein production.
authors.affiliation: Department für Chemie, Universität für Bodenkultur, 1190 Wien, Austria.
authors.forename: Rhiannon
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stanton
authors.affiliation: Department für Chemie, Universität für Bodenkultur, 1190 Wien, Austria.
authors.forename: Alba
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hykollari
authors.affiliation: Department für Chemie, Universität für Bodenkultur, 1190 Wien, Austria.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Eckmair
authors.affiliation: Department für Chemie, Universität für Bodenkultur, 1190 Wien, Austria.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Malzl
authors.affiliation: Department für Chemie, Universität für Bodenkultur, 1190 Wien, Austria.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dragosits
authors.affiliation: Department für Biotechnologie, Universität für Bodenkultur, 1190 Wien, Austria.
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Palmberger
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, Cornell University, Geneva, NY 14456, USA.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department für Chemie, Universität für Bodenkultur, 1190 Wien, Austria.
authors.forename: Iain B H
authors.initials: IB
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.affiliation: Department für Chemie, Universität für Bodenkultur, 1190 Wien, Austria. Electronic address: katharina.paschinger@boku.ac.at.
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Paschinger
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D006017:Glycolipids; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000378:metabolism; D006031:Glycosylation; D007915:Lepidoptera / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000502:physiology*; D009036:Moths / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D010767:Phosphorylcholine / Q000378:metabolism; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000378:metabolism*; D013431:Sulfates / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D006017:Glycolipids; D006023:Glycoproteins; D011134:Polysaccharides; D013431:Sulfates; D010767:Phosphorylcholine
keywords: Glucuronic acid; Insect; N-linked oligosaccharides; Phosphorylcholine; Sulphate