Capturing site-specific heterogeneity with large-scale N-glycoproteome analysis

Nat Commun. 2019 Mar 21;10(1):1311. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-09222-w.

Abstract

Protein glycosylation is a highly important, yet poorly understood protein post-translational modification. Thousands of possible glycan structures and compositions create potential for tremendous site heterogeneity. A lack of suitable analytical methods for large-scale analyses of intact glycopeptides has limited our abilities both to address the degree of heterogeneity across the glycoproteome and to understand how this contributes biologically to complex systems. Here we show that N-glycoproteome site-specific microheterogeneity can be captured via large-scale glycopeptide profiling methods enabled by activated ion electron transfer dissociation (AI-ETD), ultimately characterizing 1,545 N-glycosites (>5,600 unique N-glycopeptides) from mouse brain tissue. Our data reveal that N-glycosylation profiles can differ between subcellular regions and structural domains and that N-glycosite heterogeneity manifests in several different forms, including dramatic differences in glycosites on the same protein. Moreover, we use this large-scale glycoproteomic dataset to develop several visualizations that will prove useful for analyzing intact glycopeptides in future studies.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Brain / metabolism*
  • Brain Chemistry
  • Datasets as Topic
  • Female
  • Gene Expression
  • Glycopeptides / chemistry*
  • Glycopeptides / classification
  • Glycopeptides / genetics
  • Glycopeptides / isolation & purification
  • Glycosylation
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins / chemistry*
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins / classification
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins / genetics
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins / isolation & purification
  • Polysaccharides / chemistry*
  • Polysaccharides / isolation & purification
  • Protein Processing, Post-Translational*
  • Proteome / chemistry*
  • Proteome / classification
  • Proteome / genetics
  • Proteome / isolation & purification
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry / instrumentation
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry / methods

Substances

  • Glycopeptides
  • Nerve Tissue Proteins
  • Polysaccharides
  • Proteome