Glycobiology Advance Access originally published online on August 1, 2007
Glycobiology 2007 17(10):1052-1060; doi:10.1093/glycob/cwm080
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Influence of outer region mannosylphosphorylation on N-glycan formation by Candida albicans: Normal acid-stable N-glycan formation requires acid-labile mannosylphosphate addition
4 Department of Pathology, University of Virginia Health Center, Charlottesville, VA 22908-0904, USA
4 Department of Microbiology, University of Virginia Health Center, Charlottesville, VA 22908-0904, USA
1 To whom correspondence should be addressed: Tel: +1-434-924-8067; Fax: +1-434-924-2151; e-mail: khazen{at}virginia.edu
Received on December 20, 2006; revised on June 19, 2007; accepted on July 19, 2007
The pathogenic yeast Candida albicans produces large N-glycans with outer regions containing only mannose residues. The outer region comprises a primary branch with multiple secondary and tertiary branches. Tertiary branches are linked to secondary branches by phosphodiester bridges. In the current model of outer chain elongation in the genetically related yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, synthesis of the branches occurs sequentially, primary to tertiary. Thus, disruption of mannosylphosphorylation, the initial step in tertiary branch formation, should not affect primary or secondary branch production. Compared to its wild-type parent, a C. albicans mutant defective in tertiary branch mannosylphosphorylation (mnn4
/mnn4) made outer regions with reduced susceptibility to low acid acetolysis treatment, suggesting that the secondary or primary region had been modified. Higher acid acetolysis conditions were required to release the secondary branches from the primary branches. The released secondary branches constitute the subset of the wild-type secondary branches that lack a phosphate group. In contrast, the acid-stable region of both wild-type and mnn4 S. cerevisiae strains required high acid acetolysis conditions to release the secondary branches, despite having smaller and less complex secondary and tertiary branches. These results suggest that the complex and longer secondary and tertiary branches of C. albicans affect the conformation of the acid-stable region to render it more susceptible to acetolysis which implies secondary and tertiary branch formation in C. albicans are interdependent events and occur concurrently, rather than sequentially.
Key words: Candida albicans / cell wall protein / N-glycosylation / mannosylphosphorylation
2 Current address: Department of Biology, Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, TX 76308.