Glyco-seek: Ultrasensitive Detection of Protein-Specific Glycosylation by Proximity Ligation Polymerase Chain Reaction

J Am Chem Soc. 2016 Aug 31;138(34):10722-5. doi: 10.1021/jacs.6b03861. Epub 2016 Aug 17.

Abstract

We report a non-destructive biochemical technique, termed "Glyco-seek", for analysis of O-GlcNAcylated proteins. Glyco-seek combines chemoenzymatic labeling, proximity ligation, and quantitative polymerase chain reaction to detect O-GlcNAcylated proteins with ultrahigh sensitivity. Our glycan-specific assay can be paired with traditional proximity ligation assays to simultaneously determine the change in total protein levels. We show that Glyco-seek detects attomoles of glycoproteins of interest from cell lysates, with sensitivity several orders of magnitude higher than that of current techniques. We used the method to directly assay the O-GlcNAcylation status of a low-abundance transcription factor from cell lysates without need for isolation or enrichment.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Acetylglucosamine / metabolism
  • Azides / chemistry
  • Click Chemistry
  • Glycoproteins / chemistry
  • Glycoproteins / metabolism*
  • Glycosylation
  • Limit of Detection*
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction

Substances

  • Azides
  • Glycoproteins
  • Acetylglucosamine