Glycobiology Advance Access originally published online on December 2, 2008
Glycobiology 2009 19(3):301-308; doi:10.1093/glycob/cwn138
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Suppression of β-N-acetylglucosaminidase in the N-glycosylation pathway for complex glycoprotein formation in Drosophila S2 cells
2 National Research Laboratory of Molecular Biotechnology, Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 790-784
3 Mass Spectrometry Research Team, Korea Basic Science Institute, Ochang 363-883, Korea
1 To whom correspondence should be addressed: Tel: +82-54-279-2280; e-mail: hjcha{at}postech.ac.kr
Received on September 11, 2008; revised on November 26, 2008; accepted on November 27, 2008
Most insect cells have a simple N-glycosylation process and consequently paucimannosidic or simple core glycans predominate. Previously, we have shown that paucimannosidic N-glycan structures are dominant in Drosophila S2 cells. It has been proposed that β-N-acetylglucosaminidase (GlcNAcase), a hexosaminidase in the Golgi membrane which removes a terminal N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), might contribute to simple N-glycosylation in several insects and insect-derived cells except S2 cells. In the present work, we investigated the substantial effects of GlcNAcase on N-glycan patterns in Drosophila S2 cells using two GlcNAcase suppression strategies: an mRNA-targeting approach using RNA interference (RNAi) and a protein-targeting approach using the specific chemical inhibitor 2-acetamido-1,2-dideoxynojirimycin (2-ADN). Using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) analyses, we found that the N-glycosylation patterns of human erythropoietin (hEPO) secreted by stably transfected S2 cells were more complex following GlcNAcase suppression, which generated N-glycan structures with a terminal GlcNAc and/or galactose. These data demonstrate that GlcNAcase may be an important factor in the formation of paucimannosidic core N-glycans in Drosophila S2 cells and suggest that it may be possible to express complex glycoproteins in engineered Drosophila S2 cells by suppressing GlcNAcase in the N-glycosylation pathway.
Key words: β-N-acetylglucosaminidase / Drosophila S2cells / human erythropoietin / N-glycosylation / suppression