Glucosylation of phosphorylpolyisoprenol and sterol at the plasma membrane of soya-bean (Glycine max) protoplasts.

Protoplasts were prepared from cells of soya-bean (Glycine max) suspension cultures and the plasma membrane was labelled with diazotized [G-3H]sulphanilic acid. Homogenates were fractionated by differential and isopycnic centrifugation, and membrane fractions in a density gradient were characterized by enzymic markers and the radioactive label. When fractions containing a large amount of protein were incubated with UDP-[U-14C]glucose, radioactive material soluble in chloroform/methanol was formed and this separated into acidic and neutral fractions on ion-exchange chromatograms of DEAE-cellulose. The acidic fraction was shown to consist of dolichol phosphate glucose, and the neutral fraction sterol glucosides and acylsterol glucosides. Optimum conditions for glucosylation of dolichol phosphate were established as 5 mM-MgCl2, pH 6.0, and the enzyme had a Michaelis constant of 1.5 x 10(-5) m-UDP-glucose. Optimum conditions for glucosylation of sterol were 5 mM-MgCl2, pH 8.0 GDP-[U-14C]glucose was a poor substrate for the synthesis of both acidic and neutral lipids. Although the synthesis of dolichol phosphate glucose and sterol glucosides occurred throughout the sucrose gradient, the specific activities of both glucosyltransferases were greatest in a fraction coincident with the radioactively labelled plasma membrane. Results are discussed in relation to the likely role fo these transglucosylase activities.