Structural analysis of the GPI glycan

PLoS One. 2021 Sep 16;16(9):e0257435. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0257435. eCollection 2021.

Abstract

Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchoring of proteins is an essential post-translational modification in all eukaryotes that occurs at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and serves to deliver GPI-anchored proteins (GPI-APs) to the cell surface where they play a wide variety of vital physiological roles. This paper describes a specialized method for purification and structural analysis of the GPI glycan of individual GPI-APs in yeast. The protocol involves the expression of a specific GPI-AP tagged with GFP, enzymatic release from the cellular membrane fraction, immunopurification, separation by electrophoresis and analysis of the peptides bearing GPI glycans by mass spectrometry after trypsin digestion. We used specifically this protocol to address the structural remodeling that undergoes the GPI glycan of a specific GPI-AP during its transport to the cell surface. This method can be also applied to investigate the GPI-AP biosynthetic pathway and to directly confirm predicted GPI-anchoring of individual proteins.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Endoplasmic Reticulum / metabolism
  • GPI-Linked Proteins / chemistry
  • GPI-Linked Proteins / metabolism
  • Peptides / chemistry
  • Peptides / metabolism
  • Polysaccharides / chemistry*
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / metabolism
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry*

Substances

  • GPI-Linked Proteins
  • Peptides
  • Polysaccharides

Grants and funding

MM. BFU2017-89700-P. FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades—Agencia Estatal de Investigación. http://www.aei.gob.es/. MN and KF. JP19H02922. Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. https://www.jsps.go.jp/english/. The funders had and will not have a role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.