Structural analysis of N-glycans from gull egg white glycoproteins and egg yolk IgG

LC-MS characterization of N/O-glycans of α- and β-subunits of chicken ovomucin separated by SDS-PAGE

As the main active glycoprotein of egg white, the biological functions of chicken ovomucin α- and β-subunit are closely related to the structure of glycans. However, the exact composition and structure of the subunit glycans are still unknown. We obtained highly pure chicken ovomucin α-subunit and β-subunit protein bands by the strategy combined with two-step isoelectric precipitation and SDS-PAGE gel electrophoresis. The ammonia-catalyzed one-pot procedure was then used to release and capture α-and β-subunit protein glycans with 1-phenyl- 3-Methyl-5-pyrazolone (PMP). The N/O-glycans of bis-PMP derivatives were purified and analyzed by LC-MS. More importantly, an effective dual modification was performed to accurately quantify neutral and sialylated O-glycans through methylamidation of sialic acid residues and simultaneously through carbonyl condensation reactions of reducing ends with PMP. We first showed that the α-subunit protein has only N-glycosylation modification, and the β-subunit only O-glycosylation, a total of 22 N-glycans and 20 O-glycans were identified in the α- and β-subunit, respectively. In addition, the complex N-glycan (47 %) and the sialylated O-glycan (77 %) are each major types of the above subunits. Such findings in this study provide a basis for studying the functional and biological activities of chicken ovomucin glycans.

Structural identification of N-glycan isomers using logically derived sequence tandem mass spectrometry

N-linked glycosylation is one of the most important protein post-translational modifications. Despite the importance of N-glycans, the structural determination of N-glycan isomers remains challenging. Here we develop a mass spectrometry method, logically derived sequence tandem mass spectrometry (LODES/MSⁿ), to determine the structures of N-glycan isomers that cannot be determined using conventional mass spectrometry. In LODES/MSⁿ, the sequences of successive collision-induced dissociation are derived from carbohydrate dissociation mechanisms and apply to N-glycans in an ion trap for structural determination. We validate LODES/MSⁿ using synthesized N-glycans and subsequently applied this method to N-glycans extracted from soybean, ovalbumin, and IgY. Our method does not require permethylation, reduction, and labeling of N-glycans, or the mass spectrum databases of oligosaccharides and N-glycan standards. Moreover, it can be applied to all types of N-glycans (high-mannose, hybrid, and complex), as well as the N-glycans degraded from larger N-glycans by any enzyme or acid hydrolysis.

Sequential modifications of glycans by linkage-specific alkylamidation of sialic acids and permethylation

Permethylation is useful for glycosidic linkage analysis, but is often accompanied by a large proportion of by-products, especially for glycans containing sialic acids (Sia). Unlike hydroxyl groups of glycans, which are converted to stable methyl ethers by permethylation, the carboxylic acids on Sia are converted to methyl esters, which are easily reversible to carboxylate under alkaline conditions. To overcome this problem, we used linkage-specific alkylamidation to protect Sia prior to the permethylation. This method not only decreased the levels of by-products, but also enabled us to distinguish isomers of α2,3- and α2,6-Sia while simultaneously determining other glycosidic linkages.

Blood group P1 antigen-bearing glycoproteins are functional but less efficient receptors of Shiga toxin than conventional glycolipid-based receptors

Shiga toxin (STx) is a virulence factor produced by enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli. STx is taken up by mammalian host cells by binding to the glycosphingolipid (GSL) globotriaosylceramide (Gb3; Galα1-4Galβ1-4Glc-ceramide) and causes cell death after its retrograde membrane transport. However, the contribution of the hydrophobic portion of Gb3 (ceramide) to STx transport remains unclear. In pigeons, blood group P1 glycan antigens (Galα1-4Galβ1-4GlcNAc-) are expressed on glycoproteins that are synthesized by α1,4-galactosyltransferase 2 (pA4GalT2). To examine whether these glycoproteins can also function as STx receptors, here we constructed glycan-remodeled HeLa cell variants lacking Gb3 expression but instead expressing pA4GalT2-synthesized P1 glycan antigens on glycoproteins. We compared STx binding and sensitivity of these variants with those of the parental, Gb3-expressing HeLa cells. The glycan-remodeled cells bound STx1 via N-glycans of glycoproteins and were sensitive to STx1 even without Gb3 expression, indicating that P1-containing glycoproteins also function as STx receptors. However, these variants were significantly less sensitive to STx than the parent cells. Fluorescence microscopy and correlative light EM revealed that the STx1 B subunit accumulates to lower levels in the Golgi apparatus after glycoprotein-mediated than after Gb3-mediated uptake but instead accumulates in vacuole-like structures probably derived from early endosomes. Furthermore, coexpression of Galα1-4Gal on both glycoproteins and GSLs reduced the sensitivity of cells to STx1 compared with those expressing Galα1-4Gal only on GSLs, probably because of competition for STx binding or internalization. We conclude that lipid-based receptors are much more effective in STx retrograde transport and mediate greater STx cytotoxicity than protein-based receptors.

Glycan diversity in the course of vertebrate evolution

Vertebrates are estimated to have arisen over 500 million years ago in the Cambrian Period. Species that survived the Big Five extinction events at a global scale underwent repeated adaptive radiations along with habitat expansions from the sea to the land and sky. The development of the endoskeleton and neural tube enabled more complex body shapes. At the same time, vertebrates became suitable for the invasion and proliferation of foreign organisms. Adaptive immune systems were acquired for responses to a wide variety of pathogens, and more sophisticated systems developed during the evolution of mammals and birds. Vertebrate glycans consist of common core structures and various elongated structures, such as Neu5Gc, Galα1-3Gal, Galα1-4Gal, and Galβ1-4Gal epitopes, depending on the species. During species diversification, complex glycan structures were generated, maintained or lost. Whole-genome sequencing has revealed that vertebrates harbor numerous and even redundant glycosyltransferase genes. The production of various glycan structures is controlled at the genetic level in a species-specific manner. Because cell surface glycans are often targets of bacterial and viral infections, glycan structural diversity is presumed to be protective against infections. However, the maintenance of apparently redundant glycosyltransferase genes and investment in species-specific glycan structures, even in higher vertebrates with highly developed immune systems, are not well explained. This fact suggests that glycans play important roles in unknown biological processes.

Glycosylation at an evolutionary nexus: the brittle star Ophiactis savignyi expresses both vertebrate and invertebrate N-glycomic features

Echinoderms are among the most primitive deuterostomes and have been used as model organisms to understand chordate biology because of their close evolutionary relationship to this phylogenetic group. However, there are almost no data available regarding the N-glycomic capacity of echinoderms, which are otherwise known to produce a diverse set of species-specific glycoconjugates, including ones heavily modified by fucose, sulfate, and sialic acid residues. To increase the knowledge of diversity of carbohydrate structures within this phylum, here we conducted an in-depth analysis of N-glycans from a brittle star (Ophiactis savignyi) as an example member of the class Ophiuroidea. To this end, we performed a multi-step N-glycan analysis by HPLC and various exoglyosidase and chemical treatments in combination with MALDI-TOF MS and MS/MS. Using this approach, we found a wealth of hybrid and complex oligosaccharide structures reminiscent of those in higher vertebrates as well as some classical invertebrate glycan structures. 70% of these N-glycans were anionic, carrying either sialic acid, sulfate, or phosphate residues. In terms of glycophylogeny, our data position the brittle star between invertebrates and vertebrates and confirm the high diversity of N-glycosylation in lower organisms.

Glycoblotting of Egg White Reveals Diverse N-Glycan Expression in Quail Species

The glycan part of glycoproteins is known to be involved in the structure and modulatory functions of glycoproteins, serving as ligands for cell-to-cell interactions, and as specific ligands for cell-to-microbe interactions. It is believed that intraspecies and interspecies variations in glycosylation exist. As an approach to better understand glycan diversity, egg whites (EW) from four different quail species are studied by the well-established glycoblotting procedure, a glycan enrichment and analysis method. N-Glycans were classified and the profiles were established for quail egg white samples which showed 21 relevant glycan peaks; 18 peaks were expressed significantly, and 10 glycan peaks are found to be abundant in certain species. The result establishes glycan profiles for Blue Scaled, Bobwhite, Japanese, and Mountain Quail egg whites and shows a unique difference among glycan expressions, particularly, high mannose in Japanese Quail and tetra-antennary glycan structure for other quail species.

Topological N-glycosylation and site-specific N-glycan sulfation of influenza proteins in the highly expressed H1N1 candidate vaccines

The outbreak of a pandemic influenza H1N1 in 2009 required the rapid generation of high-yielding vaccines against the A/California/7/2009 virus, which were achieved by either addition or deletion of a glycosylation site in the influenza proteins hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. In this report, we have systematically evaluated the glycan composition, structural distribution and topology of glycosylation for two high-yield candidate reassortant vaccines (NIBRG-121xp and NYMC-X181A) by combining various enzymatic digestions with high performance liquid chromatography and multiple-stage mass spectrometry. Proteomic data analyses of the full-length protein sequences determined 9 N-glycosylation sites of hemagglutinin, and defined 6 N-glycosylation sites and the glycan structures of low abundance neuraminidase, which were occupied by high-mannose, hybrid and complex-type N-glycans. A total of ~300 glycopeptides were analyzed and manually validated by tandem mass spectrometry. The specific N-glycan structure and topological location of these N-glycans are highly correlated to the spatial protein structure and the residential ligand binding. Interestingly, sulfation, fucosylation and bisecting N-acetylglucosamine of N-glycans were also reliably identified at the specific glycosylation sites of the two influenza proteins that may serve a crucial role in regulating the protein structure and increasing the protein abundance of the influenza virus reassortants.

Rapid screening for specific glycosylation and pathogen interactions on a 78 species avian egg white glycoprotein microarray

There is an urgent need for discovery of novel antimicrobials and carbohydrate-based anti-adhesive strategies are desirable as they may not promote resistance. Discovery of novel anti-adhesive molecules from natural product libraries will require the use of a high throughput screening platform. Avian egg white (EW) provides nutrition for the embryo and protects against infection, with glycosylation responsible for binding certain pathogens. In this study, a microarray platform of 78 species of avian EWs was developed and profiled for glycosylation using a lectin panel with a wide range of carbohydrate specificities. The dominating linkages of sialic acid in EWs were determined for the first time using the lectins MAA and SNA-I. EW glycosylation similarity among the different orders of birds did not strictly depend on phylogenetic relationship. The interactions of five strains of bacterial pathogens, including Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Vibrio cholera, identified a number of EWs as potential anti-adhesives, with some as strain- or species-specific. Of the two bacterial toxins examined, shiga-like toxin 1 subunit B bound to ten EWs with similar glycosylation more intensely than pigeon EW. This study provides a unique platform for high throughput screening of natural products for specific glycosylation and pathogen interactions. This platform may provide a useful platform in the future for discovery of anti-adhesives targeted for strain and species specificity.

Analysis of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry: an update for 2009-2010

This review is the sixth update of the original article published in 1999 on the application of MALDI mass spectrometry to the analysis of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates and brings coverage of the literature to the end of 2010. General aspects such as theory of the MALDI process, matrices, derivatization, MALDI imaging, arrays and fragmentation are covered in the first part of the review and applications to various structural typed constitutes the remainder. The main groups of compound that are discussed in this section are oligo and polysaccharides, glycoproteins, glycolipids, glycosides and biopharmaceuticals. Many of these applications are presented in tabular form. Also discussed are medical and industrial applications of the technique, studies of enzyme reactions and applications to chemical synthesis.

Distribution of the Galβ1-4Gal epitope among birds: species-specific loss of the glycan structure in chicken and its relatives

The Galβ1-4Gal epitope is rarely found in mammals, and the natural antibody against Galβ1-4Gal is rich in human. In contrast, we have previously demonstrated the presence of Galβ1-4Gal in pigeon and ostrich, and the absence of this epitope in chicken. Here, to further investigate the expression of this glycan among birds, egg white glycoproteins and egg yolk IgG from nine species of birds, namely, chicken, duck, emu, guineafowl, ostrich, peafowl, pigeon, quail, and turkey, were analyzed by western blot using an anti-(Galβ1-4Gal) antibody. The results indicated that some egg white glycoproteins from emu, ostrich, and quail, and heavy chains of IgG from all of the birds, except chicken and quail, were stained with the antibody. The presence of Galβ1-4Gal on N-glycans of IgGs from guineafowl, peafowl, and turkey were confirmed by mass spectrometry (MS), MS/MS, and MS(n) analyses. In quail, the presence of Galβ1-4Gal was confirmed by detecting the activities of UDP-galactose: β-galactoside β1,4-galactosyltransferase (β4GalT(Gal)) in various tissues, and by detecting Galβ1-4Gal by western blotting. In contrast, bamboo partridge, which is a close relative of chicken, did not show any detectable activities of β4GalT(Gal) or Galβ1-4Gal on glycoproteins. Because quail, peafowl, turkey, chicken, and bamboo partridge belong to the same family, i.e., Phasianidae, expression of Galβ1-4Gal was most likely differentiated within this family. Considering that Galβ1-4Gal is also expressed in ostrich, emu, and pigeon, which are phylogenetically distant relatives within modern birds, Galβ1-4Gal expression appears to be widely distributed among birds, but might have been abolished in the ancestors of chicken and bamboo partridge.

Distinct expression profiles of UDP-galactose: β-D-galactoside α1,4-galactosyltransferase and UDP-galactose: β-D-galactoside β1,4-galactosyltransferase in pigeon, ostrich and chicken

We previously identified two novel enzymes in pigeon, α1,4- and β1,4-galactosyltransferases (GalTs), which are responsible for the biosynthesis of the Galα1-4Gal and Galβ1-4Gal sequences on glycoproteins, respectively. No such glycan structures and/or enzymes have been found in mammals, suggesting that the expression of these enzymes diverged during the course of vertebrate evolution. To compare their expression profiles among avian species, we first established a method for detecting the activities of these two GalTs based on the two-dimensional high pressure liquid chromatography mapping technique, using 2-aminopyridine-derivatized asialo-biantennary N-glycans as an acceptor substrate. When we analyzed the activities of GalTs in pigeon liver extracts in the presence of UDP-Gal, 13 different products containing Galα1-4Galβ1-4GlcNAc, Galβ1-4Galβ1-4GlcNAc and/or Galα1-4Galβ1-4Galβ1-4GlcNAc branches were identified. The newly formed glycosidic linkages of the enzymatic products were determined by nuclear magnetic resonance and methylation analysis, as well as by galactosidase digestions. The activities of both α1,4- and β1,4-GalTs were detected in various tissues in pigeon, although their relative activities were different in each tissue. In contrast, ostrich expressed β1,4-GalT, but not α1,4-GalT, in all tissues analyzed, whereas neither α1,4- nor β1,4-GalT activity was detected in chicken. These results indicate that α1,4- and β1,4-GalTs are expressed in a species-specific manner and are distributed throughout the entire body of pigeon or ostrich when the enzymes are present.

N-Glycosylation profiling of turtle egg yolk: expression of galabiose structure

To understand the roles of species-specific carbohydrates, systematic studies of interspecific glycan analyses are imperative. An extensive series of glycomics studies on approximately 180 kinds of bird eggs have demonstrated that 60-70% of the birds, which are closely related in phylogeny, express the alpha-Galp-(1-->4)-Galp structure on their egg glycoproteins. This prompted us to investigate the glycosylation profiles of eggs from an evolutionarily related organism, a sea turtle (reptilian). We performed N-glycosylation profiling of turtle egg yolk by using HPLC mapping in conjunction with mass spectrometric methods and thereby demonstrated that the alpha-Galp-(1-->4)-Galp groups are displayed on approximately 38% of total N-glycans. Our findings suggest that the ability to express the galabiose structure was acquired at an early stage of diversification in amniotes.

Molecular cloning of pigeon UDP-galactose:beta-D-galactoside alpha1,4-galactosyltransferase and UDP-galactose:beta-D-galactoside beta1,4-galactosyltransferase, two novel enzymes catalyzing the formation of Gal alpha1-4Gal beta1-4Gal beta1-4GlcNAc sequence

We previously found that pigeon IgG possesses unique N-glycan structures that contain the Gal alpha1-4Gal beta1-4Gal beta1-4GlcNAc sequence at their nonreducing termini. This sequence is most likely produced by putative alpha1,4- and beta1,4-galactosyltransferases (GalTs), which are responsible for the biosynthesis of the Gal alpha1-4Gal and Gal beta1-4Gal sequences on the N-glycans, respectively. Because no such glycan structures have been found in mammalian glycoproteins, the biosynthetic enzymes that produce these glycans are likely to have distinct substrate specificities from the known mammalian GalTs. To study these enzymes, we cloned the pigeon liver cDNAs encoding alpha4GalT and beta4GalT by expression cloning and characterized these enzymes using the recombinant proteins. The deduced amino acid sequence of pigeon alpha4GalT has 58.2% identity to human alpha4GalT and 68.0 and 66.6% identity to putative alpha4GalTs from chicken and zebra finch, respectively. Unlike human and putative chicken alpha4GalTs, which possess globotriosylceramide synthase activity, pigeon alpha4GalT preferred to catalyze formation of the Gal alpha1-4Gal sequence on glycoproteins. In contrast, the sequence of pigeon beta4GalT revealed a type II transmembrane protein consisting of 438 amino acid residues, with no significant homology to the glycosyltransferases so far identified from mammals and chicken. However, hypothetical proteins from zebra finch (78.8% identity), frogs (58.9-60.4%), zebrafish (37.1-43.0%), and spotted green pufferfish (43.3%) were similar to pigeon beta4GalT, suggesting that the pigeon beta4GalT gene was inherited from the common ancestors of these vertebrates. The sequence analysis revealed that pigeon beta4GalT and its homologs form a new family of glycosyltransferases.

Enabling techniques and strategic workflow for sulfoglycomics based on mass spectrometry mapping and sequencing of permethylated sulfated glycans

Sulfate modifications on terminal epitopes of N- and O-glycans have increasingly been implicated as critical determinants mediating a diverse range of biological recognition functions. To address these low abundance but important sulfated glycans, and the sulfoglycome in general, further development of enrichment strategies and enabling mass spectrometry (MS)-based mapping techniques are needed. In this report, we demonstrate that the sulfated glycans, with and without additional sialylation, can be successfully permethylated by the sodium hydroxide slurry method and be distinguished from phosphorylated glycans by virtue of this derivatization. In conjunction with simple microscale postderivatization fractionation steps, permethyl derivatives fully retaining the negatively charged sulfate moiety and separated from the nonsulfated ones, can be efficiently detected and sequenced de novo by advanced MS/MS in the positive-ion mode. In particular, we show that the highly sequence and linkage informative high energy collision induced dissociation (CID) MS/MS afforded by MALDI-TOF/TOF can be extended to sulfoglycomic applications. The sulfated parent ion selected for CID MS/MS was found to mostly retain the sulfate moiety and therefore allow efficient fragmentation via the usual array of glycosidic, cross ring, and concerted double cleavages. Collectively, the optimized strategy enables a high sensitivity detection and critical mapping of the sulfoglycome such as the one derived from lymph node tissues or cell lines in both negative and positive-ion modes. Novel sulfated epitopes were identified from a crude mouse lymph node preparation, which fully attested to the practical utility of the methodology developed.