Glycoprotein biosynthesis in the alg3 Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutant. I. Role of glucose in the initial glycosylation of invertase in the endoplasmic reticulum.

Oligosaccharides on invertase restricted to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in alg3,sec18 yeast at 37 degrees C were found to be 20% wild type Man8GlcNAc and 80% Man1 alpha-->2Man1 alpha-->2Man1 alpha-->3(Man1 alpha-->6)Man1 beta-->4GlcNAc2 (Verostek, M.F., Atkinson, P.H., and Trimble, R. B. (1991) J. Biol. Chem. 266, 5547-5551). These results suggested that alg3 was slightly leaky, but did not address whether the oligosaccharide-lipid Man9GlcNAc2 and Man5GlcNAc2 precursors were glucosylated in alg3 yeast. Therefore, an alg3,sec18,gls1 strain was constructed to delete the GLS1-encoded glucosidase I responsible for trimming the terminal alpha 1,2-linked glucose from newly transferred Glc3ManxGlcNAc2 oligosaccharides. Invertase activity was overexpressed 5-10-fold on transforming this strain with a multicopy plasmid (pRB58) carrying the SUC2 gene, and preparative amounts of the ER form of external invertase, derepressed and accumulated at 37 degrees C, were purified. The N-linked glycans were released by sequential treatment with endo-beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase H (endo H) and peptide-N4-N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminyl asparagine amidase. Oligosaccharide pools were sized separately on Bio-Gel P-4, which showed that endo H released about 17% of the carbohydrate as Glc3Man8GlcNAc, while peptide-N4-N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminyl asparagine amidase released the remainder as Hex8GlcNAc2 and Man5GlcNAc2 in a 1:4 ratio. Glycan structures were assigned by 500-MHz two-dimensional DQF-COSY 1H NMR spectroscopy, which revealed that the endo H-resistant Hex8GlcNAc2 pool contained Glc3Man5GlcNAc2 and Man8GlcNAc2 in a 6:4 ratio, the latter a different isomer from that formed by the ER alpha 1,2-mannosidase (Byrd, J. C., Tarentino, A. L., Maley, F., Atkinson, P. H., and Trimble, R. B. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 14657-14666). Recovery of Glc3Man8GlcNAc and not the ER form of Man8GlcNAc provided an internal control indicating the absence of glucosidase I, which was confirmed by incubation of [3H]Glc3[14C]Man9GlcNAc with solubilized membranes from either alg3,sec18,gls1 or alg3,sec18,GLS1 strains. Chromatographic analysis of the products showed that [3H]Glc was removed only in the presence of the GLS1 gene product. Thus, the vast majority of the N-linked glycosylation in the ER of alg3 yeast (> 75%) occurs by transfer of Man5GlcNAc2 without prior addition of the 3 glucoses normally found on the lipid-linked precursor.