Engineering mammalian mucin-type O-glycosylation in plants

J Biol Chem. 2012 Apr 6;287(15):11911-23. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M111.312918. Epub 2012 Feb 14.

Abstract

Mucin-type O-glycosylation is an important post-translational modification that confers a variety of biological properties and functions to proteins. This post-translational modification has a particularly complex and differentially regulated biosynthesis rendering prediction and control of where O-glycans are attached to proteins, and which structures are formed, difficult. Because plants are devoid of GalNAc-type O-glycosylation, we have assessed requirements for establishing human GalNAc O-glycosylation de novo in plants with the aim of developing cell systems with custom-designed O-glycosylation capacity. Transient expression of a Pseudomonas aeruginosa Glc(NAc) C4-epimerase and a human polypeptide GalNAc-transferase in leaves of Nicotiana benthamiana resulted in GalNAc O-glycosylation of co-expressed human O-glycoprotein substrates. A chimeric YFP construct containing a 3.5 tandem repeat sequence of MUC1 was glycosylated with up to three and five GalNAc residues when co-expressed with GalNAc-T2 and a combination of GalNAc-T2 and GalNAc-T4, respectively, as determined by mass spectrometry. O-Glycosylation was furthermore demonstrated on a tandem repeat of MUC16 and interferon α2b. In plants, prolines in certain classes of proteins are hydroxylated and further substituted with plant-specific O-glycosylation; unsubstituted hydroxyprolines were identified in our MUC1 construct. In summary, this study demonstrates that mammalian type O-glycosylation can be established in plants and that plants may serve as a host cell for production of recombinant O-glycoproteins with custom-designed O-glycosylation. The observed hydroxyproline modifications, however, call for additional future engineering efforts.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acetylgalactosamine / metabolism
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Bacterial Proteins / biosynthesis
  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics
  • CA-125 Antigen / biosynthesis
  • CA-125 Antigen / genetics
  • Carbohydrate Epimerases / biosynthesis
  • Carbohydrate Epimerases / genetics
  • Cloning, Molecular
  • Galactosyltransferases
  • Genes, Reporter
  • Genetic Engineering*
  • Glycoproteins / biosynthesis
  • Glycoproteins / genetics
  • Glycosylation
  • Humans
  • Interferons / biosynthesis
  • Interferons / genetics
  • Luminescent Proteins / biosynthesis
  • Luminescent Proteins / genetics
  • Membrane Proteins / biosynthesis
  • Membrane Proteins / genetics
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Mucins / biosynthesis
  • N-Acetylgalactosaminyltransferases / biosynthesis
  • N-Acetylgalactosaminyltransferases / genetics
  • Nicotiana / enzymology
  • Nicotiana / genetics*
  • Nicotiana / metabolism
  • Peptide Fragments / chemistry
  • Plant Proteins / genetics
  • Plants, Genetically Modified
  • Polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase
  • Procollagen-Proline Dioxygenase / genetics
  • Protein Processing, Post-Translational*
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa / enzymology
  • Recombinant Proteins / biosynthesis
  • Recombinant Proteins / genetics

Substances

  • Bacterial Proteins
  • CA-125 Antigen
  • Glycoproteins
  • Luminescent Proteins
  • MUC16 protein, human
  • Membrane Proteins
  • Mucins
  • Peptide Fragments
  • Plant Proteins
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • yellow fluorescent protein, Bacteria
  • Interferons
  • Procollagen-Proline Dioxygenase
  • Galactosyltransferases
  • N-Acetylgalactosaminyltransferases
  • UDPgalactose-N-acetylgalactosamine galactosyltransferase
  • Carbohydrate Epimerases
  • Acetylgalactosamine