Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Neutral and Anionic N‑Glycans from a <i>Dictyostelium discoideum</i> Model for Human Congenital Disorder of Glycosylation CDG IL

The HL241 mutant strain of the cellular slime mold <i>Dictyostelium discoideum</i> is a potential model for human congenital disorder of glycosylation type IL (ALG9-CDG) and has been previously predicted to possess a lower degree of modification of its N-glycans with anionic moieties than the parental wild-type. In this study, we first showed that this strain has a premature stop codon in its <i>alg9</i> mannosyltransferase gene compatible with the occurrence of truncated N-glycans. These were subject to an optimized analytical workflow, considering that the mass spectrometry of acidic glycans often presents challenges due to neutral loss and suppression effects. Therefore, the protein-bound N-glycans were first fractionated, after serial enzymatic release, by solid phase extraction. Then primarily single glycan species were isolated by mixed hydrophilic-interaction/anion-exchange or reversed-phase HPLC and analyzed using chemical and enzymatic treatments and MS/MS. We show that protein-linked N-glycans of the mutant are of reduced size as compared to those of wild-type AX3, but still contain core α1,3-fucose, intersecting <i>N-</i>acetylglucosamine, bisecting <i>N-</i>acetylglucosamine, methylphosphate, phosphate, and sulfate residues. We observe that a single N-glycan can carry up to four of these six possible modifications. Due to the improved analytical procedures, we reveal fuller details regarding the N-glycomic potential of this fascinating model organism

Zwitterionic Phosphodiester-Substituted Neoglycoconjugates as Ligands for Antibodies and Acute Phase Proteins

Zwitterionic modifications of glycans, such as phosphorylcholine and phosphoethanolamine, are known from a range of prokaryotic and eukaryotic species and are recognized by mammalian antibodies and pentraxins; however, defined saccharide ligands modified with these zwitterionic moieties for high-throughput studies are lacking. In this study, we prepared and tested example mono- and disaccharides 6-substituted with either phosphorylcholine or phosphoethanolamine as bovine serum albumin neoglycoconjugates or printed in a microarray format for subsequent assessment of their binding to lectins, pentraxins, and antibodies. C-Reactive protein and anti-phosphorylcholine antibodies bound specifically to ligands with phosphorylcholine, but recognition by concanavalin A was abolished or decreased as compared with that to the corresponding nonzwitterionic compounds. Furthermore, in array format, the phosphorylcholine-modified ligands were recognized by IgG and IgM in sera of either non-infected or nematode-infected dogs and pigs. Thereby, these new compounds are defined ligands which allow the assessment of glycan-bound phosphorylcholine as a target of both the innate and adaptive immune systems in mammals