The envelope glycoproteins of dengue 1 and dengue 2 viruses grown in mosquito cells differ in their utilization of potential glycosylation sites.

We have previously isolated and characterized two dengue (DEN) 2 viruses mutant in their fusion-from-within (FFWI) phenotype in the insect cell line C6/36. Both viruses lost a potential glycosylation site (Asn-153) in the envelope (E) glycoprotein. To determine whether the change in FFWI phenotype was due to a change in E-glycoprotein glycosylation, we characterized the patterns of glycosylation on the E-glycoprotein of wild-type DEN 1 and DEN 2 viruses. The E-glycoproteins were isolated from purified virus grown in Aedes albopictus C6/36 cells, by use of high-performance size-exclusion chromatography. The tryptic maps of wild-type glycosylated and enzymatically (PNGase F) deglycosylated E-glycoproteins were compared by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. The DEN 1 virus E-glycoprotein was found to have two peaks in the tryptic map that exhibited shifts after deglycosylation, whereas the DEN 2 virus E-glycoprotein had only one. Besides the potential glycosylation site at Asn-153, both DEN 1 and DEN 2 virus E-glycoproteins have another potential site located at Asn-67. Amino-terminal sequencing of the shifted peaks revealed that DEN 2 virus E-glycoprotein is glycosylated only at Asn-67; however, DEN 1 virus E-glycoprotein is glycosylated at both Asn-67 and Asn-153. These DEN virus serotypes are thus heterogeneous in their use of glycosylation sites. We also determined by a lectin-binding assay that the attached carbohydrates for both viruses were likely to be of the high-mannose type.