Profiling with structural elucidation of the neutral and anionic O-linked oligosaccharides in the egg jelly coat of Xenopus laevis by Fourier transform mass spectrometry

Swimming of Xenopus laevis sperm exhibits multiple gears and its duration is extended by egg jelly constituents

The motility of Xenopus sperm is initiated by the osmotic shock experienced when these cells are ejaculated into low-salinity pond water. Motility is brief and is required for the sperm to penetrate the jelly layers and fertilize the egg. In this study we demonstrate that extracts of egg jelly contain factors that extend the period of sperm motility as well as providing a chemoattractant activity as previously reported. Both activities are partially dependent on extracellular calcium. Time-lapse and video microscopy show that after activation of motility the number of motile sperm decreases rapidly, with a half-time of about 2 min. Addition of 10% v/v egg jelly extract ("egg water") increased the number of motile sperm 2-fold over controls at 20 s and about 4- to 10-fold over controls at 10 min after initiation of motility. Extension of motility lifetime was not mediated by a nonspecific protein or by allurin, the egg-water protein that has chemoattractant activity. The helical path of Xenopus sperm exhibited tight coupling between rotational and forward velocities in egg jelly, but coupling changed rapidly from moment to moment in low-salinity buffer. Our observations suggest that jelly-derived factors regulate both the longevity and directionality of sperm propulsion.

Structure determination by MALDI-IRMPD mass spectrometry and exoglycosidase digestions of O-linked oligosaccharides from Xenopus borealis egg jelly

Differences in the fertilization behavior of Xenopus borealis from X. laevis and X. tropicalis suggest differences in the glycosylation of the egg jellies. To test this assumption, O-linked glycans were chemically released from the egg jelly coat glycoproteins of X. borealis. Over 50 major neutral glycans were observed, and no anionic glycans were detected from the released O-glycan pool. Preliminary structures of ∼30 neutral oligosaccharides were determined using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) infrared multiphoton dissociation tandem mass spectrometry (MS). The mass fingerprint of a group of peaks for the core-2 structure of O-glycans was conserved in the tandem mass spectra and was instrumental in rapid and efficient structure determination. Among the 29 O-glycans, 22 glycans contain the typical core-2 structure, 3 glycans have the core-1 structure and 2 glycans contained a previously unobserved core structure with hexose at the reducing end. There were seven pairs of structural isomers observed in the major O-linked oligosaccharides. To further elucidate the structures of a dozen O-linked glycans, specific and targeted exoglycosidase digestions were carried out and the products were monitored with MALDI-MS. Reported here are the elucidated structures of O-linked oligosaccharides from glycoproteins of X. borealis egg jelly coats. The structural differences in O-glycans from jelly coats of X. borealis and its close relatives may provide a better understanding of the structure-function relationships and the role of glycans in the fertilization process within Xenopodinae.

Mass spectrometry and glycomics

Glycosylation defines the adhesive properties of animal cell surfaces and the surrounding extracellular environments. Because cells respond to stimuli by altering glycan expression, glycan structures vary according to spatial location in tissue and temporal factors. These dynamic structural expression patterns, combined with the essential roles glycans play in physiology, drive the need for analytical methods for glycoconjugates. In addition, recombinant glycoprotein drug products represent a multibillion dollar market. Effective analytical methods are needed to speed the identification of new targets and the development of industrial glycoprotein products, both new and biosimilar. Mass spectrometry is an enabling technology in glycomics. This review summarizes mass spectrometry of glycoconjugate glycans. The intent is to summarize appropriate methods for glycans given their chemical properties as distinct from those of proteins, lipids, and small molecule metabolites. Special attention is given to the uses of mass spectral profiling for glycomics with respect to the N-linked, O-linked, ganglioside, and glycosaminoglycan compound classes. Next, the uses of tandem mass spectrometry of glycans are summarized. The review finishes with an update on mass spectral glycoproteomics.

Prion disease diagnosis by proteomic profiling

Definitive prion disease diagnosis is currently limited to postmortem assay for the presence of the disease-associated proteinase K-resistant prion protein. Using cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from prion-infected hamsters, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization Fourier transform mass spectrometry (MALDI-FTMS), and support vector machines (SVM), we have identified peptide profiles characteristic of disease state. Using 10-fold leave-one-out cross-validation, we report a predictive accuracy of 72% with a true positive rate of 73% and a false positive rate of 27% demonstrating the suitability of using proteomic profiling and CSF for the development of multiple marker diagnostics of prion disease.

Analysis of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry: an update covering the period 2001-2002

This review is the second update of the original review on the application of MALDI mass spectrometry to the analysis of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates that was published in 1999. It covers fundamental aspects of the technique as applied to carbohydrates, fragmentation of carbohydrates, studies of specific carbohydrate types such as those from plant cell walls and those attached to proteins and lipids, studies of glycosyl-transferases and glycosidases, and studies where MALDI has been used to monitor products of chemical synthesis. Use of the technique shows a steady annual increase at the expense of older techniques such as FAB. There is an increasing emphasis on its use for examination of biological systems rather than on studies of fundamental aspects and method development and this is reflected by much of the work on applications appearing in tabular form.

Deciphering the glycocode: the complexity and analytical challenge of glycomics

Carbohydrates coat most types of cell in nature and are intimately involved in various biological events, including cell differentiation, homing to specific tissues, cell adhesion, cell recognition, microbial pathogenesis and immunological recognition. Carbohydrate structures are complex to analyze owing to their branched nature, the diversity of secondary modifications of monomers, their indirect relationship to the genome and the range of molecular contexts in which the modifications are found. Thus, whereas the fields of genomics and proteomics have become accessible to most scientists, technologies to assess glycan structures rapidly (i.e. glycomics) are still in the developmental stages. This review focuses on recent developments in glycomic technologies, including new high-throughput techniques for glycan purification and annotation that are advancing mass-spectrometry-based glycomics, and the latest work on microarray methodologies to decipher the glycome.

Congruent strategies for carbohydrate sequencing. 3. OSCAR: an algorithm for assigning oligosaccharide topology from MSn data

This is the third in a sequence of reports devoted to the development of congruent strategies for carbohydrate sequencing. Two previous reports outlined the strategies for observing structural detail from MSn data and introduced tools that compile, search, and compare fragment spectra in a bottom-up approach to oligosaccharide sequencing. In this third report, we introduce the operational details of an algorithm that we define as the Oligosaccharide Subtree Constraint Algorithm (OSCAR). This algorithm assimilates analyst-selected MSn ion fragmentation pathways into oligosaccharide topology (branching and linkage) using what may be considered a top-down sequencing strategy. Guided by a series of logical constraints, this de novo algorithm provides molecular topology without presumed biosynthetic constraints or external comparisons. In this introductory study, OSCAR is applied to a series of permethylated oligomers and isomeric glycans, and topologies are assigned in a few hundredths of a second.

Infrared multiphoton dissociation of O-linked mucin-type oligosaccharides

Oligosaccharides are known to play important roles in many biological processes. In the study of oligosaccharides, collision-induced dissociation (CID) is the most common dissociation method to elucidate the sequence and connectivity. However, a disadvantage of CID is the decrease in both the degree and efficiency of dissociation with increasing mass. In the present study, we have successfully performed infrared multiphoton dissociation (IRMPD) on 39 O-linked mucin-type oligosaccharide alditols (both neutral and anionic). CID and IRMPD spectra of several oligosaccharides were also compared. They yielded nearly identical fragment ions corresponding to the lowest energy fragmentation pathways. The characteristic fragmentations of structural motifs, which can provide the linkage information, were similarly presented in both CID and IRMPD spectra. Multistage of CID (MS(3) or MS(4)) is commonly needed to completely sequence the oligosaccharides, while IRMPD of the same compounds yielded the fragment ions corresponding to the loss of the first residue to the last residue during a single-stage tandem MS (MS(2)). Finally, it is shown that the fragmentation efficiency of IRMPD increases with the increasing size of oligosaccharides.

Infrared Multiphoton Dissociation and Electron Capture Dissociation of High-Mannose Type Glycopeptides

The combination of electron capture dissociation (ECD) and infrared multiphoton dissociation (IRMPD) for the structural characterization of high-mannose type glycopeptides is explored in depth for the first time. Contrary to previous applications to other glycan types, our analyses reveal that IRMPD does not necessarily selectively induce glycan cleavage in high-mannose type glycopeptides; rather peptide backbone cleavage can effectively compete with glycosidic cleavage. Poor glycan cleavage with IRMPD is due to a higher gas-phase stability of mannose-linking glycosidic bonds. This reasoning also explains mannose cleavage patterns observed for a xylose type glycopeptide with IRMPD. In addition, extensive peptide backbone cleavage is observed for a >6 kDa glycopeptide with ECD, to our knowledge the largest glycopeptide examined with this technique to date.

Atmospheric Pressure MALDI Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry of Labile Oligosaccharides

An atmospheric pressure matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (AP MALDI) source coupled to Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT ICR MS) under UV laser and solid matrix conditions has been demonstrated to analyze a variety of labile oligosaccharides including O-linked and N-linked complex glycans released from glycoproteins. Spectra were acquired by both AP MALDI and vacuum MALDI and directly compared. The results presented here confirm that AP MALDI can generate significantly less energetic ions than vacuum MALDI and is able to produce the intact molecular ions with little or no fragmentation in both positive and negative ion mode analyses. Under certain conditions, noncovalent complexes of sialylated oligosaccharides were observed. The sensitivity attainable by AP MALDI was found to be comparable to conventional MALDI, and tandem mass spectrometry of oligosaccharides ionized by AP MALDI was shown to allow detailed structural analysis. Analysis of N-glycan mixtures derived from human fibrinogen further demonstrated that AP MALDI-FT ICR MS is ideal for the study of complex glycan samples as it provides high-accuracy, high-resolution mass analysis with no difficulty in distinguishing sample constituents from fragment ions.

Profiling the morphological distribution of O-linked oligosaccharides

The morphological distribution of oligosaccharides is determined in the egg jelly surrounding Xenopus laevis eggs. This biological system is used to illustrate a method for readily identifying and quantifying oligosaccharides in specific tissues. The extracellular matrix surrounding X. laevis eggs consists of a vitelline envelope and a jelly coat. The jelly coat contains three morphologically distinct layers designated J1, J2, and J3 from the innermost to the outermost and is composed of 9-11 distinct glycoproteins. Each jelly layer is known to have specific functions in the fertilization of the egg. We developed a rapid method to separate and identify the oligosaccharides from X. laevis egg jelly layers. Identification was based on the retention times in high-performance liquid chromatography (porous graphitized carbon column), exact masses, and tandem mass spectrometry. Over 40 neutral and 30 sulfated oligosaccharides were observed in the three jelly layers. Neutral oligosaccharide structures from different jelly layers were both unique and overlapping, while sulfated oligosaccharides were detected only in layers J1 and J2. Neutral oligosaccharides unique to jelly layer J3 and the combined layers J1+J2 had similar core structures and similar residues. However, differences between these two sets of unique oligosaccharides were also observed and were primarily due to the branching carbohydrate moieties rather than the core structures.

Strategy for Profiling and Structure Elucidation of Mucin-Type Oligosaccharides by Mass Spectrometry

A strategy combining accurate mass determination, tandem mass spectrometry, structure homology, and exoglycosidases is described that allows the structural characterization of mucin-type O-linked oligosaccharides. The method is used to profile with quantitation the O-linked oligosaccharide (both neutral and anionic) components of the only diploid Xenopus frog, Xenopus tropicalis. Collision-induced dissociation was used to determine connectivity, to identify previously characterized oligosaccharides, and to determine the presence of structural motifs in unknown oligosaccharides. Exoglycosidase digestion was used to identify the individual residues along with the linkages. The enzymes were also used to cleave larger oligosaccharides to smaller units that are similar to previously elucidated components. By using CID, isomeric structures were compared to determine whether they were identical. In this way, the exoglycosidases were more effectively used, and their use was minimized. A total of 35 oligosaccharides including neutral, sialylated, and sulfated were characterized in this way. The relative abundances of all components were also determined based on HPLC.

Infrared multiphoton dissociation of alkali metal-coordinated oligosaccharides

Infrared multiphoton dissociation (IRMPD) of alkali metal-coordinated oligosaccharides was obtained in a Fourier transform mass spectrometer. Fragmentation of the oligosaccharides was observed for Li+- and Na+-coordinated species. For larger alkali metal ions (K+, Rb+, and Cs+), the major products were the alkali metal ions. IRMPD experiments were performed on milk oligosaccharides, and the dissociation thresholds were determined. The threshold values were found to differ for the isomers. It is suggested that the threshold may be useful for differentiating isomeric compounds. Additionally, oligosaccharide alditols from biological samples were analyzed. Comparison of the collision-induced dissociation (CID) and IRMPD spectra of oligosaccharide alditols revealed that IRMPD could be used as a complementary method to obtain structural information.

Sialylation analysis of O-glycosylated sialylated peptides from urine of patients suffering from Schindler's disease by Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry and sustained off-resonance irradiation collision-induced dissociation

A strategy based on Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS) for screening of complex glycoconjugate mixtures containing O-linked glycopeptides and O-glycosylated amino acids with alpha-N-acetylgalactosaminyl residues is presented. To detect and identify O-glycoforms present in urine of patients suffering from hereditary N-acetylhexosaminidase deficiency (known as Schindler's disease), present at 100 times higher concentrations than in urine of healthy controls, new accurate methods for mapping and sequencing were required. In the mass spectrometric analysis particular attention has to be paid to original sialylation patterns, because of the potential lability of the sialic acid moiety during the desorption/ionization process. Negative ion nanoelectrospray ionization (nanoESI) FTICR-MS at 9.4 T is shown here to represent a method of choice for identification of single components in such complex glycomixtures due to high resolution and mass accuracy. By optimization of sustained off-resonance irradiation collision-induced dissociation tandem mass spectrometry (SORI-CID-MS(2)) in the negative ion mode, the type and sequence of the sialylated glycopeptide components were determined from their fragmentation patterns. Additionally, implementation of SORI-CID-MS(3) provides detailed information for sialylation analysis. The potential diagnostic value of this approach is discussed.

Infrared laser isolation of ions in Fourier transform mass spectrometry

A new method for isolating ions for tandem mass spectrometry analyses in Fourier transform mass spectrometry is illustrated. The method employs an infrared laser to dissociate completely the undesired ions. The selected ions are excited to an orbit away from the degradative portion of the laser beam. Ion isolation was accomplished and tandem mass spectrometry experiments were performed on model oligosaccharides and compounds from biological samples.