Recognition of the oligosaccharide and protein moieties of glycoproteins by the UDP-Glc:glycoprotein glucosyltransferase

It was found, in cell-free assays, that the Man8GlcNAc2 and Man7GlcNAc2 isomers having the mannose unit to which the glucose is added were glucosylated by the rat liver glucosyltransferase at 50 and 15%, respectively, of the rate of Man9GlcNAc2 glucosylation. This indicates that processing by endoplasmic reticulum mannosidases decreases the extent of glycoprotein glucosylation. All five different glycoproteins tested (bovine and porcine thyroglobulins, phytohemagglutinin, soybean agglutinin, and bovine pancreas ribonuclease B) were found to be poorly glucosylated or not glucosylated unless they were subjected to treatments that modified their native conformations. The effect of denaturation was not to expose the oligosaccharides but to make protein determinants, required for enzymatic activity, accessible to the glucosyltransferase because (a) cleavage of denatured glycoproteins by unspecific (Pronase) or specific (trypsin) proteases abolished their glucose acceptor capacities almost completely except when the tryptic peptides were held together by disulfide bonds and (b) high mannose oligosaccharides in native glycoproteins, although poorly glucosylated or not glucosylated, were accessible to macromolecular probes as concanavalin A-Sepharose, endo-beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase H, and jack bean alpha-mannosidase. In addition, denatured, endo-beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase H deglycosylated glycoproteins were found to be potent inhibitors of the glucosylation of denatured glycoproteins. It is suggested that in vivo only unfolded, partially folded, and malfolded glycoproteins are glucosylated and that glucosylation stops upon adoption of the correct conformation, a process that hides the protein determinants (possibly hydrophobic amino acids) from the glucosyltransferase.