Cell surface N-glycans influence the level of functional E-cadherin at the cell-cell border

M Kristen Hall; Douglas A Weidner; Sahil Dayal; Ruth A Schwalbe

doi:10.1016/j.fob.2014.10.006

Cell surface N-glycans influence the level of functional E-cadherin at the cell-cell border

FEBS Open Bio. 2014 Oct 14:4:892-7. doi: 10.1016/j.fob.2014.10.006. eCollection 2014.

Authors

M Kristen Hall¹, Douglas A Weidner², Sahil Dayal¹, Ruth A Schwalbe¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27834, USA.
² Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27834, USA.

Abstract

E-cadherin is crucial for adhesion of cells to each other and thereby development and maintenance of tissue. While it is has been established that N-glycans inside the cell impact the level of E-cadherin at the cell surface of epithelial-derived cells, it is unclear whether N-glycans outside the cell control the clustering of E-cadherin at the cell-cell border. Here, we demonstrate reduction of N-glycans at the cell surface weakened the recruitment and retention of E-cadherin at the cell-cell border, and consequently reduced the strength of cell-cell interactions. We conclude that N-glycans at the cell surface are tightly linked to the placement of E-cadherin at the cell-cell border and thereby control E-cadherin mediated cell-cell adhesion.

Keywords: CDG, congenital disorders of glycosylation; Cell adhesion; DIC, differential interference contrast; E-cadherin; Glycosylation; L-PHA, Phaseolus vulgaris Leucoagglutinin; Membrane structure; N-glycans; TIRF, total internal reflection fluorescence.