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Insights Into Glycobiology and the Protein-Glycan Interactome Using Glycan Microarray Technologies.

Glycans linked to proteins and lipids and also occurring in free forms have many functions, and these are partly elicited through specific interactions with glycan-binding proteins (GBPs). These include lectins, adhesins, toxins, hemagglutinins, growth factors, and enzymes, but antibodies can also bind glycans. While humans and other animals generate a vast repertoire of GBPs and different glycans in their glycomes, other organisms, including phage, microbes, protozoans, fungi, and plants also express glycans and GBPs, and these can also interact with their host glycans. This can be termed the protein-glycan interactome, and in nature is likely to be vast, but is so far very poorly described. Understanding the breadth of the protein-glycan interactome is also a key to unlocking our understanding of infectious diseases involving glycans, and immunology associated with antibodies binding to glycans. A key technological advance in this area has been the development of glycan microarrays. This is a display technology in which minute quantities of glycans are attached to the surfaces of slides or beads. This allows the arrayed glycans to be interrogated by GBPs and antibodies in a relatively high throughput approach, in which a protein may bind to one or more distinct glycans. Such binding can lead to novel insights and hypotheses regarding both the function of the GBP, the specificity of an antibody and the function of the glycan within the context of the protein-glycan interactome. This article focuses on the types of glycan microarray technologies currently available to study animal glycobiology and examples of breakthroughs aided by these technologies.

Polysaccharides

Single-cell glycome and transcriptome profiling enabled by a library of anti-glycan antibodies.

Glycans play critical roles in cellular processes and clinical applications, but they remain difficult to study due to a shortage of well-characterized anti-glycan reagents and high-throughput technologies for glycome profiling, especially ones capable of single-cell resolution. To meet these needs, we generated a database of 650 anti-glycan antibody sequences, recombinantly expressed a library of 154 antibodies, and extensively characterized their binding properties using glycan microarrays. In addition to providing valuable information and resources for the field, the sequence database and microarray data also enabled development of "Glycomic-seq" (Glycome profiling via multiplexed immunoglobulins combined with sequencing), a DNA-barcoded anti-glycan antibody platform that enables high-throughput, single-cell profiling of both RNA and cell-surface glycan expression. Using Glycomic-seq, we profiled two isogenic colorectal cancer cell lines. The results revealed various glycans associated with cancer stem cells and metastasis, demonstrating the power of integrating glycomic information with multi-omic efforts to discover biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

Polysaccharides

N-glycan remodeling by α-D-mannosidase and β-D-N-acetylhexosaminidase regulates fruit softening, redox balance, and post-harvest pathogen resistance.

Post-harvest loss of fruits and vegetables poses significant challenges to food security and economic sustainability, primarily due to ripening-associated excessive softening that shortens shelf life and increases susceptibility to pathogens. N-glycans, N-glycoproteins, and their processing enzymes are integral to various plant processes, including fruit ripening. Among these, α-D-mannosidase (α-Man) and β-D-N-acetylhexosaminidase (β-Hex) are key ripening-specific enzymes that modulate fruit softening. Previously, we have shown that RNAi-mediated suppression of α-Man or β-Hex improves fruit shelf life and firmness in both climacteric and non-climacteric fruits. However, the underlying molecular and biochemical basis of fruit softening regulation by α-Man and β-Hex was not well understood. In this study, we developed transgenic tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants by silencing α-Man and β-Hex simultaneously using RNAi. Suppression of these enzymes reduces N-glycoprotein degradation, downregulates pectin dissolution, and inhibits ripening-related gene expression. RNAi fruits exhibited enhanced shelf life, greater firmness, reduced reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation and increased resistance against post-harvest pathogens without affecting plant growth, fruit development, yield, or nutritional quality. To further explore the molecular mechanism of α-Man and β-Hex function, we purified and quantified N-glycans in RNAi fruits and other ripening-impaired mutants, identifying key N-glycan species. We also carried out iTRAQ-based quantitative proteome profiling to investigate the abundance of proteins in ripened fruit affected by silencing of α-Man and β-Hex. Molecular insights revealed that N-glycan processing and degradation are key events during ripening, influencing cell wall softening, fruit redox state, and post-harvest quality attributes. This study highlights the potential of co-silencing α-Man and β-Hex as a novel approach to extending the shelf life of fruits, regardless of their climacteric behavior, without compromising quality or yield.

Fruit

Boosting Quantification of N-Glycans by an Enhanced Isobaric Multiplex Reagents for Carbonyl-Containing Compound (SUGAR) Tagging Strategy.

Glycans are complex molecules composed of various monosaccharides and exhibit diverse, branched polymer structures. Extensive research has been conducted on mass spectrometry (MS)-based qualitative and quantitative glycan analysis due to their critical biological functions. However, traditional data-dependent acquisition (DDA) in MS analysis primarily selects a limited subset of abundant ions during MS1 scans for fragmentation in subsequent MS2 stages. In this study, we introduce an advanced isobaric labeling strategy that incorporates a large amount of content-relevant sample labeled with one isobaric tag channel as an additional boosting channel. This innovation enhances the efficiency of isobaric multiplex reagents for carbonyl-containing compound (SUGAR) tagging in quantitative glycomics. Notably, this approach significantly improves the characterization of low-abundance N-glycans and enables the detection of subtle quantitative differences in N-glycan profiling.

Polysaccharides

Plasmodium falciparum CyRPA Glycan Binding Does Not Explain Adaptation to Humans.

The human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum evolved from a parasite that infects gorillas, termed Plasmodium praefalciparum. The sialic acids on glycans on the surface of erythrocytes differ between humans and other apes. It has recently been shown that the P. falciparum cysteine-rich protective antigen (PfCyRPA) binds human sialoglycans as an essential step in the erythrocyte invasion pathway, while that of the chimpanzee parasite, Plasmodium reichenowi has affinities matching ape glycans. Two amino acid changes, at sites 154 and 209, were shown to be sufficient to switch glycan binding preferences and inferred to reflect adaptation of P. falciparum to humans. However, we show that sites 154 and 209 are identical in P. falciparum and P. praefalciparum, with no other differences located in or near the CyRPA glycan binding sites. Thus, the gorilla precursor appears to have already been preadapted to bind human sialoglycans.

Plasmodium falciparum

RENBP inhibition amplifies metabolic glycan labeling efficiency of antigen-presenting cells in vitro and in vivo.

Metabolic glycoengineering of unnatural sugars provides a powerful tool to introduce unique chemical tags onto cell membrane for subsequent conjugation of cargos. However, the metabolic glycan labeling efficiency of antigen-presenting cells (APCs), the key mediators of adaptive immunity, is often low. Here, we report that APCs upregulate GlcNAc 2-epimerase (RENBP) and that RENBP inhibition leads to improved labeling efficiency of tetraacetyl-N-azidoacetylmannosamine (AAM) in APCs, including dendritic cells (1.2-fold), macrophages (1.3-fold), and B cells (1.4-fold) in vitro. RENBP inhibition can preferentially enhance AAM labeling efficiency in APCs than in non-APCs and selectively enhance the labeling efficiency of AAM over azido-galactosamine. We further demonstrate that RENBP inhibitors can improve AAM-mediated labeling of B cells and other APCs in vivo, with the largest enhancement for B cells (>3-fold) for 7 days. Our study uncovers a facile approach to improving metabolic glycan labeling of APCs, enabling the development of APC-targeted immunotherapies.

Animals

High-throughput glycan array screening reveals rhamnogalacturonan-I as a ligand for Arabidopsis leucine-rich repeat receptor kinases involved in plant immunity.

The plant cell wall not only serves as a physical barrier against pathogens but, when damaged, also functions as a source of cell wall-derived molecules that play crucial roles in plant immunity as damage-associated molecular patterns. While oligogalacturonides from homogalacturonan are well-studied damage-associated molecular patterns, the immune-signaling potential of other cell wall components remains largely unexplored. Conventional genetic and biochemical approaches aimed at identifying ligand-receptor pairs in plant immunity have been limited by the vast diversity of potential ligand molecules and functional redundancy of putative receptors. In this study, we developed a high-throughput screening pipeline that simultaneously examines multiple interactions between plant cell wall-derived glycans and >350 extracellular domains of receptor kinases and receptor-like proteins in Arabidopsis, resulting in the screening of >40 000 interactions. We discovered a group of leucine-rich repeat receptor kinases named ARMs (AWARENESS of RG-I MAINTENANCES) that interact with rhamnogalacturonan-I (RG-I), a major component of pectin. RG-I treatment induced pattern-triggered immunity responses with distinct kinetics compared to oligogalacturonide responses. We identified RG-I oligosaccharide structures required for interaction with ARM receptors and immune activation and found that ARM receptors function redundantly in plant immunity. Collectively, our work provides a powerful platform for discovering glycan-receptor pairs in plants, facilitating a more comprehensive understanding of cell wall surveillance mechanisms in plant immunity.

Arabidopsis

Arrangement of glycan chains in the sacculus of Escherichia coli.

A novel of Escherichia coli endopeptidase was used for a selective partial hydrolysis of the peptide bridges which interlink the glycan chains in E. coli sacculi. The loosening of the murein network revealed, in the electron microscope, a preferential orientation of the glycan chains, more or less perpendicular to the length axis of the cell. Control incubations with E. coli transglycosylase or egg-white lysozyme did not leave ordered structures behind.

Escherichia coli

[Spatial conformation of human serotransferrin glycans].

The construction of molecular models for the human serotransferrin glycans shows that they present one compact section linked to the protein and constituted by the pentasaccharide alpha-Man-(1 leads to 3)-[alpha-Man-(1 leads to 6)]-beta-Man-(1 leads to 4)-beta-GlcNAc-(1 leads to 4)-beta-GlcNAc-(1 leads to)-Asn to which are attached two "antennae" consisting of the trisaccharide alpha-NANA-(2 leads to 6)-beta-Gal-(1 leads to 4)-beta-GlcNAc. The trisaccharide sequence beta-Man-(1 leads to 4)-beta-GlcNAc-(1 leads to 4)-beta-GlcNAc adopts a flat and rigid conformation, stabilised by hydrogen bonds. In contrast, the sequence alpha-NANA-(1 leads to 6)-beta-Gal-(1 leads to 4)-beta-GlcNAc-(1 leads to 2)-alpha-Man takes up a helical configuration. The two "antennae" can be disposed on the pentasaccharide core to give two possible configurations, one Y-shaped and the other T-shaped. In both cases, the general conformation of the glycans is perfectly compatible with their postulated role as a recognition signal.

Chemical Phenomena

[Prediction of glycan structures of human N-glycoproteins].

By adding the sequence beta-(1 leads to 4)-GlcNAc-beta-(1 leads to)-Asn or alpha Fuc-(1 leads to 6 or 3)-beta-(1 leads to 4)-GlcNAc-beta-(1 leads to)-Asn to the oligosaccharides isolated from human urines of mannosidosis, fucosidosis and sialidosis, we are able to reconstitute numerous structures of asparaginyl-glycans. We postulate i) that these structures which have not yet been characterized pre-exist in glycans of human glycoproteins, probably in the cytoplasm or/and the cell membrane; ii) that they are products of the action of endo-beta-N-acetyl-glucosaminidases which are protected because of the lack of exoglycosidases and accumulate in the cells, and then in the urine.

Carbohydrate Metabolism, Inborn Errors

Sequence analysis of lactosamine type glycans of individual membrane proteins of Semliki Forest virus.

3H-fucose and 14C-glucosamine labelled glycopeptides of the individual membrane proteins E1, E2 and E3 of Semliki Forest virus could be sequentially digested with alpha-neuraminidase, beta-galactosidase, N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase, alpha- and beta-mannosidase, N-acetyl-beta-hexosaminidase and finally with alpha-fucosidase. The degradations of the virus glycopeptides proceeded in the same way as stepwise digestions of reference glycopeptides of the lactosamine type obtained from IgG and alpha 1-acid glycoprotein. This suggests that all three membrane glycoproteins of Semliki Forest virus contained glycans with a monosaccharide sequence characteristic for lactosamine type oligosaccharides. The number of both distal and proximal N-acetyl-glucosamine residues was estimated to be usually two. According to exo- and endo-glycosidase digestions, fucose seemed to be attached to the innermost N-acetyl-glucosamine unit.

Acetylglucosamine

The action of lysozyme on peptidoglycan with N-unsubstituted glucosamine residues. Isolation of glycan fragments and their susceptibility to lysozyme.

1. A peptidoglycan preparation N-acetylated at about 30% of glucosamine residues was obtained by the treatment of the lysozyme-resistant cell wall paptidoglycan of Bacillus cereus with acetic anhydride at pH 7. Fractionation of dialyzable material resulting from lysozyme digestion of the glycan component of this peptidoglycan preparation yielded five oligosaccharides designated as S1 to S5 besides the disaccharide GlcNAc-MurAc. 2. Oligosaccharide S3, which accounted for about 30% of the disaccharide units recovered as disaccharides and oligosaccharides, was identified as GlcN-MurAc-GlcNAc-MurAc. Oligosaccharide S1, accounting for about 20% of the disaccharide units recovered, was characterized as GlcN-MurAc-GlcN-MurAc-GlcNAc-MurAc, while oligosaccharide S2, present in a smaller amount, as GlcNAc-MurAc-GlcN-MurAc-glcNAc-MurAc. Oligosaccharides S4, and S5, present in small amounts, were identified as GlcNAc-MurAc-GlcNAc-MurAc and MurAc-GlcNAc-MurAc, respectively. 3. Oligosaccharides S1, S3 and S5 proved to be completely insusceptible to lysozyme, whereas S2 was digsted by lysozyme to produce GlcNAc-MurAc and S3. S1 was found to act as a more potent inhibitor than S3 in lysozyme-catalyzed digestion of polysaccharides. 4. The results obtained show that the lysozyme-catalyzed hydrolysis of peptidoglycan oligosaccharides had an obligatory requirement for the N-acetyl group on the glucosamine residue located in subsite C in the enzyme-substrate complex.

Bacillus cereus

CPC-PTA section staining of acid glycans.

A cetylpyridinium chloride-phosphotungstic acid procedure suggested by Kelényi and Kiss (1976) for the staining of mast cell granules in ultrathin sections was slightly modified with regard to pretreatment, pH of incubation, and rinsing of sections. The method also proved suitable for the demonstration of various mucosubstances and of cartilage proteoglycan aggrebates.

Animals

Relative Quantitative Analysis of Site-Specific N-Linked Glycosylation in Hyperglycosylated Interferon-β via Mass Spectrometry.

Glycosylation is a critical determinant of the efficacy, stability, and pharmacological behavior of therapeutic proteins. R27T, an engineered variant of interferon-β1a, contains two N-glycosylation sites (Asn25 and Asn80), increasing its structural complexity and analytical requirements. In this study, we performed comprehensive total and site-specific glycan profiling of R27T using complementary analytical approaches. For total glycan analysis, the released N-glycans were fluorescently labeled with procainamide, providing enhanced sensitivity and broader glycan coverage compared with conventional 2-aminobenzamide labeling. Site-specific glycan profiling was performed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS)-based peptide mapping. Protease digestion conditions were optimized to improve recovery of site-specific glycopeptides, with chymotrypsin identified as the most effective enzyme for resolving glycopeptides from individual glycosylation sites. Total glycan distributions reconstructed from peptide-mapping data were compared with fluorescence-based glycan profiling, showing that total and site-specific glycan data can be effectively combined. Minor discrepancies were observed depending on glycan structure, mainly due to differences in ionization efficiency. Distinct glycan distributions were observed between the two N-glycosylation sites of R27T. Molecular modeling further suggested that the additional glycan at Asn25 may enhance structural stability and receptor-binding affinity. These results demonstrate an integrative strategy for accurate glycan characterization in multi-site glycoproteins relevant to biotherapeutic development.

Glycosylation