Mass spectrometric analysis of neutral and anionic N-glycans from a Dictyostelium discoideum model for human congenital disorder of glycosylation CDG IL

J Proteome Res. 2013 Mar 1;12(3):1173-87. doi: 10.1021/pr300806b. Epub 2013 Jan 27.

Abstract

The HL241 mutant strain of the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum is a potential model for human congenital disorder of glycosylation type IL (ALG9-CDG) and has been previously predicted to possess a lower degree of modification of its N-glycans with anionic moieties than the parental wild-type. In this study, we first showed that this strain has a premature stop codon in its alg9 mannosyltransferase gene compatible with the occurrence of truncated N-glycans. These were subject to an optimized analytical workflow, considering that the mass spectrometry of acidic glycans often presents challenges due to neutral loss and suppression effects. Therefore, the protein-bound N-glycans were first fractionated, after serial enzymatic release, by solid phase extraction. Then primarily single glycan species were isolated by mixed hydrophilic-interaction/anion-exchange or reversed-phase HPLC and analyzed using chemical and enzymatic treatments and MS/MS. We show that protein-linked N-glycans of the mutant are of reduced size as compared to those of wild-type AX3, but still contain core α1,3-fucose, intersecting N-acetylglucosamine, bisecting N-acetylglucosamine, methylphosphate, phosphate, and sulfate residues. We observe that a single N-glycan can carry up to four of these six possible modifications. Due to the improved analytical procedures, we reveal fuller details regarding the N-glycomic potential of this fascinating model organism.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Base Sequence
  • Blotting, Western
  • Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid
  • Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation / metabolism*
  • DNA Primers
  • Dictyostelium / chemistry*
  • Humans
  • Models, Biological*
  • Polysaccharides / analysis*
  • Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry / methods*

Substances

  • DNA Primers
  • Polysaccharides

Supplementary concepts

  • Congenital disorder of glycosylation type 1L