Fetal bovine serum impacts the observed N-glycosylation defects in TMEM165 KO HEK cells.

TMEM165 is involved in a rare genetic human disease named TMEM165-CDG (congenital disorders of glycosylation). It is Golgi localized, highly conserved through evolution and belongs to the uncharacterized protein family 0016 (UPF0016). The use of isogenic TMEM165 KO HEK cells was crucial in deciphering the function of TMEM165 in Golgi manganese homeostasis. Manganese is a major cofactor of many glycosylation enzymes. Severe Golgi glycosylation defects are observed in TMEM165 Knock Out Human Embryonic Kidney (KO HEK) cells and are rescued by exogenous manganese supplementation. Intriguingly, we demonstrate in this study that the observed Golgi glycosylation defect mainly depends on fetal bovine serum, particularly its manganese level. Our results also demonstrate that iron and/or galactose can modulate the observed glycosylation defects in TMEM165 KO HEK cells. While isogenic cultured cells are widely used to study the impact of gene defects on proteins' glycosylation patterns, these results emphasize the importance of the use of validated fetal bovine serum in glycomics studies.