HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 279, Issue 15, 15579-15590, April 9, 2004

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 279/15/15579    most recent M308927200v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Misevic, G. N. Articles by Strecker, G. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Misevic, G. N. Articles by Strecker, G. Social Bookmarking                      What's this?

Molecular Recognition between Glyconectins as an Adhesion Self-assembly Pathway to Multicellularity^*

Gradimir N. Misevic, Yann Guerardel¶, Lazar T. Sumanovski||, Marie-Christine Slomianny¶, Maurice Demarty, Camille Ripoll, Yannis Karamanos**, Emmanuel Maes¶, Octavian Popescu, and Gerard Strecker¶

From the Laboratoire des Processus Intégratifs Cellulaires, UMR 6037 CNRS, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques de Rouen, 76821 Mont St Aignan Cedex, France, ^¶Unité de Glycobiologie Structurale et Fonctionnelle, Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, UMR 8576 CNRS, 59655 Villeneuve D'Ascq, France, ^||Department of Research, University Hospital of Basel, CH-4058 Basel, Switzerland, ^**Laboratoire de Biochimie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Université d'Artois, Faculté J Perrin, rue J. Souvraz, SP18, 62307 Lens, France, and Molecular Biology Center and Institute for Interdisciplinary Experimental Research, Babes-Bolyai University, 400006 Cluj-Napoca, Rumania

The appearance of multicellular forms of life has been tightly coupled to the ability of an organism to retain its own anatomical integrity and to distinguish self from non-self. Large glycoconjugates, which make up the outermost cell surface layer of all Metazoans, are the primary candidates for the primordial adhesion and recognition functions in biological self-assembly systems. Atomic force microscopy experiments demonstrated that the binding strength between a single pair of Porifera cell surface glyconectin 1 glycoconjugates from Microciona prolifera can hold the weight of 1600 cells, proving their adhesion functions. Here, measurement of molecular self-recognition of glyconectins (GNs) purified from three Porifera species was used as an experimental model for primordial xenogeneic self/non-self discrimination. Physicochemical and biochemical characterization of the three glyconectins, their glycans, and peptides using gel electrophoresis, ultracentrifugation, NMR, mass spectrometry, glycosaminoglycan-degrading enzyme treatment, amino acid and carbohydrate analyses, and peptide mapping showed that GNs define a new family of proteoglycan-like molecules exhibiting species-specific structures with complex and repetitive acidic carbohydrate motives different from the classical proteoglycans and mucins. In functional self-assembly color-coded bead, cell, and blotting assays, glyconectins displayed species-specific recognition and adhesion. Affinity-purified monospecific polyclonal antibodies prepared against GN1, -2, and -3 glycans selectively inhibited cell adhesion of the respective sponge species. These results together with species-specific coaggregation of GN carbohydrate-coated beads with cells showed that GN glycans are functional in cell recognition and adhesion. The specificity of carbohydrate-mediated homophilic GN interactions in Porifera approaches the binding selectivity of the evolutionarily advanced immunoglobulin superfamily. Xenoselectivity of primordial glyconectin to glyconectin recognition may be a new paradigm in the self-assembly and non-self discrimination pathway of cellular adhesion leading to multicellularity.

Received for publication, August 12, 2003 , and in revised form, December 30, 2003.

^* This work was supported mainly by private funds (from G. N. M.) and in part by the Conseil Régional Nord-Pas de Calais, CNRS, and the University of Rouen and University of Lille. The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.

To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: 332-35-14-69-08; Fax: 332-35-14-70-20; E-mail: gradimir{at}gradimir.com.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. Garcia-Manyes, I. Bucior, R. Ros, D. Anselmetti, F. Sanz, M. M. Burger, and X. Fernandez-Busquets Proteoglycan Mechanics Studied by Single-molecule Force Spectroscopy of Allotypic Cell Adhesion Glycans J. Biol. Chem., March 3, 2006; 281(9): 5992 - 5999. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				Y. Guerardel, X. Czeszak, L. T. Sumanovski, Y. Karamanos, O. Popescu, G. Strecker, and G. N. Misevic Molecular Fingerprinting of Carbohydrate Structure Phenotypes of Three Porifera Proteoglycan-like Glyconectins J. Biol. Chem., April 9, 2004; 279(15): 15591 - 15603. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]