All animals and plants dynamically attach and remove O-linked β-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) at serine and threonine residues on myriad nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins. O-GlcNAc cycling, which is tightly regulated by the concerted actions of two highly conserved enzymes, serves as a nutrient and stress sensor. On some proteins, O-GlcNAc competes directly with phosphate for serine/threonine residues. Glycosylation with O-GlcNAc modulates signalling, and influences protein expression, degradation and trafficking. Emerging data indicate that O-GlcNAc glycosylation has a role in the aetiology of diabetes and neurodegeneration.

Cycling of O-linked β- N -acetylglucosamine on nucleocytoplasmic proteins

O-GlcNAcylation is the addition of β-D-N-acetylglucosamine to serine or threonine residues of nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins. O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) was not discovered until the early 1980s and still remains difficult to detect and quantify. Nonetheless, O-GlcNAc is highly abundant and cycles on proteins with a timescale similar to protein phosphorylation. O-GlcNAc occurs in organisms ranging from some bacteria to protozoans and metazoans, including plants and nematodes up the evolutionary tree to man. O-GlcNAcylation is mostly on nuclear proteins, but it occurs in all intracellular compartments, including mitochondria. Recent glycomic analyses have shown that O-GlcNAcylation has surprisingly extensive cross talk with phosphorylation, where it serves as a nutrient/stress sensor to modulate signaling, transcription, and cytoskeletal functions. Abnormal amounts of O-GlcNAcylation underlie the etiology of insulin resistance and glucose toxicity in diabetes, and this type of modification plays a direct role in neurodegenerative disease. Many oncogenic proteins and tumor suppressor proteins are also regulated by O-GlcNAcylation. Current data justify extensive efforts toward a better understanding of this invisible, yet abundant, modification. As tools for the study of O-GlcNAc become more facile and available, exponential growth in this area of research will eventually take place.

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Cross talk between O-GlcNAcylation and phosphorylation: roles in signaling, transcription, and chronic disease.

The occurrence in nature of erythrocyte-agglutinating proteins has been known since the turn of the 19th century. By the 1960s it became apparent that such proteins also agglutinate other types of cells, and that many of them are sugar-specific. These cell-agglutinating and sugar-specific proteins have been named lectins. Although shown to occur widely in plants and to some extent also in invertebrates, very few lectins had been isolated until the early 1970s, and they had attracted little attention. This attitude changed with the demonstration that lectins are extremely useful tools for the investigation of carbohydrates on cell surfaces, in particular of the changes that the latter undergo in malignancy, as well as for the isolation and characterization of glycoproteins. In subsequent years numerous lectins have been isolated from plants as well as from microorganisms and animals, and during the past two decades the structures of hundreds of them have been established. Concurrently, it was shown that lectins function as recognition molecules in cell-molecule and cell-cell interactions in a variety of biological systems. Here we present a brief account of 100-plus years of lectin research and show how these proteins have become the focus of intense interest for biologists and in particular for the glycobiologists among them.

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History of lectins: from hemagglutinins to biological recognition molecules

Senescence-associated (beta)-galactosidase is widely used as a biomarker of replicative senescence. However, it remains unknown whether this is a distinct enzyme active at pH 6, and differentially expressed in senescence, or a manifestation of an increase in the classic acid lysosomal (beta)-galactosidase. Here we have investigated the origin of senescence-associated-(beta)-galactosidase activity by modifying the intracellular and lysosomal pH of young and senescent human umbilical vein endothelial cells and examining the effect of these manipulations on the levels of activity, using a flow cytometric assay. Lysosomal alkalinisation with chloroquine or bafilomycin A(1), as well as equilibration of the intracellular milieu to pH 6 with nigericin, caused a profound (92-99%) inhibition of the total intracellular (beta)-galactosidase activity. However, independent of pH alterations, senescent cells showed levels of (beta)-galactosidase activity three- to sixfold higher than young cells. This increase in activity occurred in parallel to an increase in (beta)-galactosidase protein levels. Acridine Orange staining revealed an increase in lysosomal content with replicative age, which correlated with the increase in (beta)-galactosidase. These findings demonstrate that senescence-associated (beta)-galactosidase is a manifestation of residual lysosomal activity at a suboptimal pH, which becomes detectable due to the increased lysosomal content in senescent cells.

Senescence-associated (beta)-galactosidase reflects an increase in lysosomal mass during replicative ageing of human endothelial cells.

Biosynthesis of lysosomal enzymes in fibroblasts. synthesis as precursors of higher molecular weight

1. The N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase of human spleen has been separated by gel electrophoresis into two components, an acidic form A and a basic form B. 2. The two forms are readily separated on DEAE-cellulose and have been concentrated 50-fold and sevenfold respectively. 3. They show similar K(m) values towards 4-methylumbelliferyl N-acetyl-beta-d-glucosaminide, and have the same pH optima when compared in citrate, phosphate or acetate buffers. They are inhibited to a similar extent by acetate, heparin, N-acetylgalactosaminolactone, N-acetyl-beta-d-galactosamine and N-acetyl-beta-d-glucosamine. Specificity for C-4 orientation is not absolute and p-nitrophenyl beta-galactosaminide is also hydrolysed but at a rate only 11.6% of that for the corresponding glucosaminide. 4. N-Acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase B is stable over a wider pH range than is N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase A, and is less easily denatured by heat. 5. Tissue fractionation indicates that both the A and B forms are present in the lysosomal fraction, whereas the supernatant contains the A form only. 6. Evidence is presented to indicate that the A form contains a number of sialic acid residues.

N-Acetyl-β-glucosaminidases in human spleen

1. The activities of beta-galactosidase, beta-glucosidase, beta-glucuronidase and N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase from rat kidney have been compared when 4-methylumbelliferyl glycosides are used as substrates. 2. Separation by gel electrophoresis at pH7.0 indicated slow- and fast-moving components of rat-kidney beta-galactosidase. 3. The fast-moving component is also associated with the total beta-glucosidase activity and inhibition experiments indicate that a single enzyme species is responsible for both activities. 4. DEAE-cellulose chromatography and filtration on Sephadex gels suggests that the beta-glucosidase component is a small acidic molecule, of molecular weight approx. 40000-50000, with optimum pH5.5-6.0 for beta-galactosidase and beta-glucosidase activities. 5. The major beta-galactosidase component has low electrophoretic mobility, a calculated molecular weight of 80000 and optimum pH3.7.

/pdf/separation-and-properties-of-b-galactosidase-b-glucosidase-b-1q4lkp3nzl.pdf

Separation and properties of β-galactosidase, β-glucosidase, β-glucuronidase and n-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase from rat kidney

β-Galactosidase, β-glucosidase and N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase in human kidney

Human mannosidosis — The enzymic defect

GM1-GANGLIOSIDOSIS is an inherited lysosomal storage disease which is due to a deficiency of the acid hydrolase GM1-β-galactosidase1. During the past few years several clinical variants have been described2–6 that differ in time of onset of symptoms, involvement of visceral organs or skeletal tissue and in the degree of neuronal and mental deterioration. Some of these variants have been related to different properties of the deficient β-galactosidases5,7 but the significance of the experimental data8 has been questioned. Several investigators have speculated on the genetic background of the different variants2,8,9 but no experimental evidence has been provided to support the hypotheses.

Donald Robinson

Papers

N-Acetyl-β-glucosaminidases in human spleen

Separation and properties of β-galactosidase, β-glucosidase, β-glucuronidase and n-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase from rat kidney

β-Galactosidase, β-glucosidase and N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase in human kidney

Human mannosidosis — The enzymic defect

Genetic heterogeneity in GM1-gangliosidosis.