N-methyl-1-deoxynojirimycin, a novel inhibitor of glycoprotein processing, and its effect on fowl plague virus maturation.

The glucose analogue N-methyl-1-deoxynojirimycin was found to be a specific inhibitor of the trimming of the outermost glucose residue of the N-linked precursor-oligosaccharide Glc3Man9GlcNAc2, and therefore of oligosaccharide processing, in fowl plague virus-infected chicken-embryo cells. The fowl plague virus glycoproteins in N-methyl-1-deoxynojirimycin-treated cells contain oligosaccharides of the composition Glc3ManxGlcNAc2 (x = 7, 8, and 9). Inhibition of trimming of the outermost glucose residues does not prevent release of infectious virus with oligosaccharides of the composition Glc3Man7(GlcNAc)2. On the other hand inhibition of the trimming of the innermost glucose residue does inhibit release of infectious virus (Datema, R., Romero, P. A., Legler , G., and Schwarz, R. T. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 79, 6787-6791 (1982) ).