Distribution of glycosyltransferase activities in different compartments of mitochondria.

The liver mitochondria were submitted to a first swelling which allowed to get outer membranes. The mitoplasts obtained in these conditions were subject to a second swelling. The separation of submitochondrial membranes on a discontinuous sucrose gradient revealed three membrane fractions, an outer membrane rich fraction, an inner membrane rich fraction and a fraction enriched with contact sites between the two membranes. The various glycosyltransferase systems involved in the biosynthesis of N-glycoproteins were located in these fractions.