alpha-D-Mannosidases of rat liver Golgi membranes. Mannosidase II is the GlcNAcMAN5-cleaving enzyme in glycoprotein biosynthesis and mannosidases Ia and IB are the enzymes converting Man9 precursors to Man5 intermediates.

Current evidence indicates that the trimming of mannosyl residues from intermediates in the biosynthesis of the N-linked oligosaccharides of glycoproteins occurs in the Golgi complex. We now present evidence that mannosidase II (Tulsiani, D. R. P., Opheim, D. J., and Touster, O. (1977) J. Biol Chem. 252, 3227-3233) is the Golgi enzyme that converts GlcNAc Man5 species to GlcNAcMan3 species in completing the mannosyl trimming process required in the biosynthesis of complex type glycoproteins. GlcNAc([3H]Man)5GlcNAc-mannosidase and p-nitrophenyl alpha-D-mannosidase activities copurify throughout the preparative procedure and show the same properties. In addition to mannosidase IA (Tabas, I., and Kornfeld, S. (1979) J. Biol. Chem. 254, 11655-11663), a second alpha-1,2-mannosidase (mannosidase IB) can be prepared from Golgi membranes which is effective in converting Man9GlcNAc to Man5GlcNAc. The two alpha-1,2-mannosidases are very similar in catalytic properties, but they are also distinguishable by several criteria. Although these two enzymes have not been extensively purified, several lines of evidence lead to the tentative conclusion that they are distinct enzymes. They appear to be present in comparable activities in the Golgi membranes and together account for the alpha-1,2-mannosidase activity of these membranes. The particular role of each alpha-1,2-mannosidase remains to be determined.