Evidence that the synthesis of glucosylphosphodolichol in yeast involves a 35-kDa membrane protein.

In an effort to identify the polypeptide chain of glucosylphosphodolichol synthase (EC 2.4.1.117), yeast microsomal membranes were allowed to react with 5-azido[beta-32P]UDPGlc, a photoactive analogue of UDPGlc, which is a substrate for this enzyme. Upon photolysis the 32P-labeled probe was shown to link covalently to a 35-kDa protein present in microsomal membranes prepared from several wild-type yeast strains. Binding was either reduced or absent in the microsomal membranes from two yeast mutants (alg5 and dpg1) that are known to be defective in the synthesis of glucosylphosphodolichol. The microsomes isolated from a heterozygous diploid strain alg5::dpg1 generated from these two mutants exhibited partial restoration of both the ability to photolabel the 35-kDa protein and the ability to catalyze the synthesis of glucosylphosphodolichol. Microsomal membranes from a mutant strain that synthesized glucosylphosphodolichol but lacked the ability to transfer the glucosyl residue to the growing lipid-linked oligosaccharide (alg6) exhibited labeling with 5-azido[beta-32P]UDPGlc comparable to that found in microsomes from the wild-type strain. In all cases photoinsertion of the probe into the 35-kDa protein correlated with the level of synthase assayed in the microsomal membranes. These results strongly support the conclusion that the 35-kDa protein labeled in these experiments is a component of glucosylphosphodolichol synthase.