Molecular size of N-acetylglucosaminylphosphotransferase and alpha-N-acetylglucosaminyl phosphodiesterase as determined in situ in Golgi membranes by radiation inactivation

Bovine UDP-N-acetylglucosamine:lysosomal-enzyme N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphotransferase. I. Purification and subunit structure

UDP-N-acetylglucosamine:lysosomal-enzyme N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphotransferase (GlcNAc-phosphotransferase) catalyzes the initial step in the synthesis of the mannose 6-phosphate determinant required for efficient intracellular targeting of newly synthesized lysosomal hydrolases to the lysosome. The enzyme was partially purified approximately 30,000-fold by chromatography of solubilized membrane proteins from lactating bovine mammary glands on DEAE-Sepharose, reactive green 19-agarose, and Superose 6. The partially purified enzyme was used to generate a panel of murine monoclonal antibodies. The anti-GlcNAc-phosphotransferase monoclonal antibody PT18 was coupled to a solid support and used to immunopurify the enzyme approximately 480,000-fold to apparent homogeneity with an overall yield of 29%. The purified enzyme has a specific activity of 10-12 micromol of GlcNAc phosphate transferred per h/mg using 100 mM alpha-methylmannoside as acceptor. The subunit structure of the enzyme was determined using a combination of analytical gel filtration chromatography, sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and amino-terminal sequencing. The data indicate that bovine GlcNAc-phosphotransferase is a 540,000-Da complex composed of disulfide-linked homodimers of 166,000- and 51,000-Da subunits and two identical, noncovalently associated 56,000-Da subunits.

Mucolipidoses II and III variants with normal N-acetylglucosamine 1-phosphotransferase activity toward alpha-methylmannoside are due to nonallelic mutations

Normal N-acetylglucosamine 1-phosphotransferase activity toward mono- and oligosaccharide acceptor substrates was detected in cultured skin fibroblasts from mucolipidoses II and III patients who were designated as variants (one of four mucolipidosis II and three out of six mucolipidosis III patients examined). The activity toward natural lysosomal protein acceptors was absent or deficient in cell preparations from all patients with classical as well as variant forms of mucolipidoses II and III. Complementation analysis, using fused and cocultivated mutant fibroblast combinations, revealed that, while cell lines with variant mucolipidosis III constituted a complementation group distinct from that of classical forms of mucolipidoses II and III, the variant mucolipidosis II cell line belonged to the same complementation group as did the classical forms. In contrast to the mutant enzyme from variant mucolipidosis III patients that failed to recognize lysosomal proteins as the specific acceptor substrates, the activity toward alpha-methylmannoside in the variant mucolipidosis II patient could be inhibited by exogenous lysosomal enzyme preparations (bovine beta-glucuronidase and human hexosaminidase A). These findings suggest that N-acetylglucosamine 1-phosphotransferase is composed of at least two distinct polypeptides: (1) a recognition subunit that is defective in the mucolipidosis III variants and (2) a catalytic subunit that is deficient or altered in the classical forms of mucolipidoses II and III as well as in the mucolipidosis II variant.

Altered molecular size of N-acetylglucosamine 1-phosphotransferase in I-cell disease and pseudo-Hurler polydystrophy

The size of the mutant N-acetylglucosamine 1-phosphotransferase in Golgi membranes from fibroblasts of patients with I-cell disease and classical pseudo-Hurler polydystrophy, which comprised one complementation group characterized by deficiency towards both artificial and natural acceptor substrates, was significantly smaller than the normal enzyme, 151-174 kDa compared with 225-278 kDa. The size of the mutant enzyme from cell lines of patients with variant forms of pseudo-Hurler polydystrophy, which comprised another complementation group characterized by normal activity towards mono- and oligo-saccharide substrates, was significantly larger than the normal enzyme, ranging from 321 to 356 kDa in two families and from 528 to 547 kDa in a third family. These findings suggest that the mutations in I-cell disease and classical pseudo-Hurler polydystrophy result in a missing enzyme component, which renders the enzyme catalytically inefficient toward any type of acceptor substrate. In contrast, the mutations in the variant forms of pseudo-Hurler polydystrophy produce a larger enzyme molecule which is active toward small substrates but is incapable of binding natural lysosomal glycoprotein substrates.