Purification and characterization of UDP-GalNAc:polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyl transferase from swine trachea epithelium.

UDP-GalNac: polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase from swine trachea epithelium was purified to homogeneity by procedures which included affinity chromatography on Sepharose 4B columns containing bound deglycosylated Cowper's gland mucin. The enzyme, purified 12,000-fold from microsomes with a yield of 40%, showed only a single band on dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The homogenous enzyme has an apparent molecular mass of 70,000 Da, as determined by gel electrophoresis or gel filtration. The transferase has a broad pH optimum between 6.7-7.8 with maximal activity at pH 7.2, and required Mn2+ for activity with maximal activity at 5-7.5 mM. Higher concentrations of Mn2+, inhibited the enzyme. The purified transferase was specific for UDPGalNAc and glycosylated both threonine and serine residues in tryptic peptides prepared from deglycosylated Cowper's gland and swine and human trachea mucins. The apparent Km of the transferase for UDPGalNAc was 6.3 microM, and the Km values for deglycosylated Cowper's gland and human and swine trachea mucins were 0.83, 1.12 and 0.94 mg/ml, respectively. The Vmax of the purified enzyme was 2.1 micromol/min/mg with deglycosylated Cowper's gland mucin, as the glycosyl acceptor. However, the activities with peptides prepared from deglycosylated mucins by limited acid hydrolysis were 20-fold greater than the intact glycoprotein under identical conditions. The deglycosylated mucins and larger peptides aggregated with time of storage and precipitated from solution. Aggregation was accompanied by a corresponding loss of enzymatic activity even after dispersion of the aggregate by sonication. The deglycosylated mucins which were prepared by chemical treatment and periodate oxidation still contained about 20% of the N-acetylgalactosamine present in the intact mucin. When this residual amino sugar was removed by periodate oxidation the completely deglycosylated mucins became very poor substrates for the purified transferase. Data obtained in the current study indicate that the accessibility of serine and threonine in the polypeptide chains of mucin glycoproteins significantly influences the rate of glycosylation of these amino acids. The best substrates and affinity ligand for the enzyme were fragments of incompletely deglycosylated mucin polypeptide chains.