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Originally published In Press as doi:10.1074/jbc.M801964200 on April 14, 2008
J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 283, Issue 25, 17298-17313, June 20, 2008
Regulation of Glycan Structures in Animal TissuesTRANSCRIPT PROFILING OF GLYCAN-RELATED GENES*
Alison V. Nairn,
William S. York,
Kyle Harris,
Erica M. Hall,
J. Michael Pierce, and
Kelley W. Moremen1
From the
Complex Carbohydrate Research Center and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602
Glycan structures covalently attached to proteins and lipids play numerous roles in mammalian cells, including protein folding, targeting, recognition, and adhesion at the molecular or cellular level. Regulating the abundance of glycan structures on cellular glycoproteins and glycolipids is a complex process that depends on numerous factors. Most models for glycan regulation hypothesize that transcriptional control of the enzymes involved in glycan synthesis, modification, and catabolism determines glycan abundance and diversity. However, few broad-based studies have examined correlations between glycan structures and transcripts encoding the relevant biosynthetic and catabolic enzymes. Low transcript abundance for many glycan-related genes has hampered broad-based transcript profiling for comparison with glycan structural data. In an effort to facilitate comparison with glycan structural data and to identify the molecular basis of alterations in glycan structures, we have developed a medium-throughput quantitative real time reverse transcriptase-PCR platform for the analysis of transcripts encoding glycan-related enzymes and proteins in mouse tissues and cells. The method employs a comprehensive list of >700 genes, including enzymes involved in sugar-nucleotide biosynthesis, transporters, glycan extension, modification, recognition, catabolism, and numerous glycosylated core proteins. Comparison with parallel microarray analyses indicates a significantly greater sensitivity and dynamic range for our quantitative real time reverse transcriptase-PCR approach, particularly for the numerous low abundance glycan-related enzymes. Mapping of the genes and transcript levels to their respective biosynthetic pathway steps allowed a comparison with glycan structural data and provides support for a model where many, but not all, changes in glycan abundance result from alterations in transcript expression of corresponding biosynthetic enzymes.
Received for publication, March 11, 2008
, and in revised form, April 11, 2008.
* This work was supported, in whole or in part, by National Institutes of Health Grant RR018502 (to W. S. Y., J. M. P., and K. W. M.). 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.
The on-line version of this article (available at http://www.jbc.org) contains supplemental Figs. 1–20 and Table 1.
1 To whom correspondence should be addressed: Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, 315 Riverbend Rd., University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. Tel.: 706-542-1705; Fax: 706-542-1759; E-mail: moremen{at}uga.edu.

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Copyright © 2008 by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
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