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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 277, Issue 33, 29945-29952, August 16, 2002
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From the
Received for publication, May 7, 2002, and in revised form, May 28, 2002
O-Fucose has been identified on
epidermal growth factor-like (EGF) repeats of Notch, and elongation
of O-fucose has been implicated in the modulation of
Notch signaling by Fringe. O-Fucose modifications are also
predicted to occur on Notch ligands based on the presence of the
C2XXGG(S/T)C3 consensus site (where
S/T is the modified amino acid) in a number of the EGF repeats of these
proteins. Here we establish that both mammalian and
Drosophila Notch ligands are modified with
O-fucose glycans, demonstrating that the consensus site was
useful for making predictions. The presence of O-fucose on
Notch ligands raised the question of whether Fringe, an
O-fucose specific
Notch proteins are single-pass transmembrane receptors that
control a broad spectrum of cell fate decisions (1). Deregulation of
the Notch signaling pathway has been implicated in various human
diseases, including CADASIL, T-cell leukemia, spondylocostal dystosis,
and Alagille syndrome (2-4). Ligands for Notch can be divided into two
classes, Delta and Serrate/Jagged. All Notch ligands are transmembrane
proteins that share common structural features including a DSL domain,
required for Notch binding, and multiple epidermal growth factor-like
(EGF)1 repeats in their
extracellular domains (5). Serrate/Jagged ligands are distinguished
structurally from Delta ligands by a greater number of EGF repeats and
the presence of a distinct extracellular cysteine-rich region near the
transmembrane domain. Ligand binding triggers proteolytic processing
events that result in release of the intracellular domain of Notch from
the membrane and subsequent translocation to the nucleus, where it
participates in a transcriptional activator complex.
Drosophila has only one Delta and one Serrate gene, but
mammals have three Deltas and two Serrate/Jaggeds.
During Drosophila development, Delta and Serrate are
distinguished functionally by their sensitivity to Fringe (reviewed in Ref. 6). Fringe is a Notch contains multiple EGF repeats within its extracellular domain
that are modified by O-fucose and are substrates for the glycosyltransferase activity of Fringe (7, 8, 16). The importance of
the glycosyltransferase activity of Fringe in the modulation of Notch
signaling has been demonstrated both by genetic studies in
Drosophila and by Notch signaling assays in mammalian cells
deficient in glycan biosynthesis (7-9, 17). Although Notch is a
substrate of Fringe, it has not yet been demonstrated that
glycosylation of Notch is actually sufficient to account for the
influence of Fringe on Notch signaling.
O-Fucose is a modification of serine or threonine residues
that has typically been found to occur on EGF repeats containing the
amino acid consensus sequence
C2XXGG(S/T)C3, where C2
and C3 are the second and third conserved cysteines of an
EGF repeat (18). The enzyme responsible for addition of
O-fucose to these sites, protein
O-fucosyltransferase-1 (O-FucT-1), has recently been purified and cloned (19, 20). O-Fucose in two
contexts other than EGF repeats has also been described: one in which
O-fucose is attached to a threonine within a thrombospondin
repeat (21), and another where a O-fucose is attached to a
peptide (PMP-C) isolated from Locusts (22, 23). O-Fucose has
been thought to be a rare modification, and to date has only been
experimentally demonstrated to occur on 11 different proteins, of 6 main types (Table I). However, the
C2XXGG(S/T)C3 consensus sequence
exists in many other EGF repeat-containing proteins (16, 24), including
all of the known Notch ligands. This raises the possibility that
O-fucosylation occurs on both the Notch receptor and its
ligands, and that modification of O-fucose saccharides on
Notch ligands may contribute to the modulatory effects of Fringe on
Notch signaling.
To begin to investigate these possibilities, we assayed both
Drosophila and mammalian Notch ligands for the presence of
O-fucose saccharides. Our results confirm that Notch ligands
do possess O-fucose, and further show that this
O-fucose can be elongated by the glycosyltransferase
activity of Fringe. Moreover, we found that O-fucosylation
can occur on EGF repeats that do not match the
C2XXGG(S/T)C3 consensus sequence for
O-fucosylation. These observations suggest that the role of
O-fucosylation in the modulation of Notch signaling and
other processes is likely to be broader and more complex than suggested previously.
Protein Expression and Purification--
Drosophila
Fringe:His6 protein was expressed in Drosophila
S2 cells and purified as described previously (8).
Drosophila Delta and Serrate proteins were also expressed in
S2 cells using the pRMHA-3 expression vector (25-27). After 21 h
of induction with 0.7 mM CuSO4, cells were
collected, washed in ice-cold phosphate-buffered saline, and
lysed in L buffer (300 mM NaCl, 5 mM KCl, 50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.4, 0.1% Triton X-100, 0.05% Tween 20, 1.2 mM EDTA) with protease inhibitors mixture (Roche
Molecular Biochemicals) by sonication. The cell lysate was precleared
by centrifugation (4 °C, 20,000 × g for 30 min) and
incubated with rat anti-Serrate (28) or mouse anti-Delta antibodies
(Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank, 1:1000 dilution) for 2 h
with gentle agitation at 4 °C. Protein-antibody complexes were then
mixed with protein A/G beads (Amersham Biosciences) for 2 h
with gentle agitation at 4 °C. The beads were then precipitated by
centrifugation at 2,000 rpm and then extensively washed with L buffer
and equilibrated with G buffer (140 mM NaCl, 20 mM HEPES, pH 7.3, 10 mM MnCl2,
0.2% Triton X-100) for glycosyltransferase assay.
Notch-EGF25 Construct--
EGF repeat 25 of
Drosophila Notch was PCR amplified from the FLAG-ECN
construct (8) using PCR primers (ccgtctagacctcatcgtttgtctgac and
gtctagagagacggacatcaatgagtgcttg) containing an XbaI site. This PCR product was then used to substitute for Notch sequences in
FLAG-ECN (8), resulting in the Notch-EGF25 expression construct. FLAG-tagged Notch-EGF25 was purified from Drosophila cell
culture after metallothionein induction as described above, using FLAG affinity beads (Sigma). The beads with immobilized Notch-EGF25 repeat
were washed as described above and used in in vitro Fringe labeling assays.
In Vitro Labeling of Serrate, Delta, and Notch EGF25 with
Fringe--
20 µl of Protein A/G beads in 60 µl of G buffer, with
immobilized Serrate, Delta proteins, or FLAG affinity beads with EGF25, were incubated with 2 µCi of UDP-[3H]GlcNAc (60 Ci/mmol, ARC, Inc.) and 0.5 µg of purified Fringe:His6 protein. After a 1-h incubation at 29 °C, the beads were washed extensively with ice-cold G buffer and analyzed by scintillation counting, or they were boiled in PAGE protein buffer and analyzed by
SDS-PAGE, Western blotting, and fluorography. For fluorography, we used
an autoradiography enhancer solution (ENHANCE, PerkinElmer Life
Sciences) and followed the manufacturer's protocol. For Western blotting, we used guinea pig anti-Delta antibody (generously provided by Dr. Mark Muskavitch (29)) and rabbit anti-Serrate antibody (generously provided by Dr. Eli Knust (30)) for detection of Delta and
Serrate, respectively.
Expression and Metabolic Radiolabeling of Mammalian Delta1 and
Jagged1 Proteins--
Plasmids expressing rat Delta1-Fc and human
Jagged1-Fc (14) were the kind gifts of Dr. Gerry Weinmaster (UCLA
School of Medicine) and Dr. Tom Vogt (Merck), respectively.
Transfections into Lec1/pMIRB (negative control) and Lec1/MFng (stably
expressing MFng) cells and metabolic radiolabeling with
[3H]fucose were performed as described previously (8).
After 24 h of metabolic radiolabeling, the Fc-tagged proteins were
purified from the medium using Protein A-Sepharose (Sigma). After
extensive washing with wash buffer (20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.0, 0.15 M NaCl, 0.1% SDS, 0.5% sodium deoxycholate, 1%
Nonidet P-40), the samples were eluted with SDS-PAGE and analyzed by
Western blotting and fluorography.
Chromatographic Analysis of O-Linked Carbohydrates--
This was
essentially performed as described previously (8, 16). Briefly, samples
of purified Delta1-Fc or Jagged1-Fc were acetone-precipitated and
subjected to alkali-induced Site-specific Mutagenesis of Drosophila
Serrate--
Site-specific mutagenesis was performed by PCR
essentially as described in Ref. 31. All mutagenesis was designed to
make the most conservative possible amino acid substitutions that would prevent O-fucosylation: either Ser to Ala or Thr to
Val. These changes are unlikely to cause gross disruption of EGF
structure because there exist endogenous repeats in Notch and its
ligands that contain Ala or Val before the third cysteine. Beginning
with a plasmid containing full-length, wild-type SER as a template, Ser-mtn (27), 18 thermal cycles were conducted with complementary pairs
of oligonucleotides containing single base mismatches that encoded the
desired change. The reaction mixture included 0.3 µg of template DNA,
50 pmol of each mutagenesis primer, and 5 units of Herculase
(Stratagene), in a volume of 50 µl. Subsequent rounds of
mutagenesis were then conducted using the product of the previous round
as a template, in the following order and with the indicated primers:
EGF 3 (aagcacggcggcgtctgcgaaaataccgc,
gcggtattttcgcagacgccgccgtgctt), EGF 5 (gagcatggtggcgtttgcatcgatctaat,
attagatcgatgcaaacgccaccatgctc), EGF 12 (cagaatggtggtgtctgcatgcctggagc, gctccaggcatgcagacaccaccattctg), EGF 13 (cacaatggcggagtctgcgagtcgggagc,
gctcccgactcgcagactccgccattgtg), EGF 4 (cgcaacggcggcgtctgcacactcaagac,
gtcttgagtgtgcagacgccgccgttgcg), EGF 7 (cggaatggagccgtctgcattgatctggt,
accagatcaatgcagacggctccattccg), EGF 14 (cagggcggtgccgtctgcatcgacggaat,
attccgtcgatgcagacggcaccgccctg), and EGF 2 (tgcaagcatggtgcctgcaacggcag,
ctgccgttgcaggcaccatgcttgca). Each mutation was confirmed by DNA sequencing.
Sequence analysis reveals the presence of multiple
C2XXGG(S/T)C3 consensus sites for
O-fucosylation in EGF repeats of all Notch ligands (Fig.
1, red circles). The published
consensus sequence for O-fucosylation was derived from
sequences of only five EGF repeats in proteins experimentally tested
for the presence of O-fucose (18). Nonetheless, this
sequence has been used to accurately predict the presence of
O-fucose on both Notch (16) and Cripto (32, 33). Here we
examine whether the predicted O-fucose sites within
individual EGF repeats of Notch ligands were also functional. If Notch
ligands were modified by O-fucose, then they would also become prospective targets for the
Notch Ligands Are Substrates for Protein
O-Fucosyltransferase-1 and Fringe*
§,
,
,
, and
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Waksman
Institute and Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry,
Rutgers, The State University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854 and the
¶ Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Institute for Cell
and Developmental Biology, State University of New York,
Stony Brook, New York 11794-5215
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ABSTRACT
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
1,3-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase, was capable of
modifying O-fucose on the ligands. Indeed,
O-fucose on mammalian Delta1 and Jagged1 can be elongated
with Manic Fringe in vivo, and Drosophila Delta
and Serrate are substrates for Drosophila Fringe in
vitro. These results raise the interesting possibility that
alteration of O-fucose glycans on Notch ligands could play a role in the mechanism of Fringe action on Notch signaling. As an
initial step to begin addressing the role of the O-fucose
glycans on Notch ligands in Notch signaling, a number of mutations in predicted O-fucose glycosylation sites on
Drosophila Serrate have been generated. Interestingly,
analysis of these mutants has revealed that O-fucose
modifications occur on some EGF repeats not predicted by the
C2XXGGS/TC3 consensus site. A
revised, broad consensus site,
C2X3-5S/TC3 (where
X3-5 are any 3-5 amino acid residues), is proposed.
![]()
INTRODUCTION
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
1,3-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase
that elongates O-fucose on EGF repeats and acts as a key
modulator of Notch signaling (7-9). Expression of Fringe inhibits the
activation of Notch by Serrate and, at the same time, potentiates the
activation of Notch by Delta (10, 11). Three Fringe genes have been
identified in mammals: Lunatic Fringe, Manic Fringe (MFng), and Radical
Fringe (12, 13). Mammalian Fringe genes have also been shown to be able
to influence the activation of Notch by its ligands, and as in
Drosophila different mammalian ligands exhibit distinct sensitivities to Fringe (14, 15).
Proteins with experimentally confirmed O-fucose modifications
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EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
-elimination. After desalting, the
released O-fucose glycans were subjected to gel filtration
analysis on a Pharmacia Superdex peptide column. The column was
calibrated with hydrolyzed glucose polymers and authentic
tetrasaccharide (Sia
2,3Gal
1,4GlcNAc
1,3fucitol) and monosaccharide (fucitol). The structure of the tetrasaccharide species
was confirmed using exoglycosidase digestions as described previously
(16). After digestion with sialidase and
-galactosidase, the
resulting disaccharide structure was confirmed by high pH anion
exchange chromatography (HPAEC) on a Dionex MA1 column as described
(16). Elution time of samples was monitored relative to the authentic
standards: GlcNAc
1,2fucitol, GlcNAc
1,3fucitol, and
GlcNAc
1,4fucitol (standards generously provided by Dr. Khushi Matta,
Roswell Park Memorial Cancer Institute, Buffalo, NY).
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RESULTS
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
1,3-N-acetylglycosaminyltransferase activity of Fringe.
However, the C2XXGG(S/T)C3 consensus
sequence was developed based on analysis of
O-fucosylation, and the extent to which O-fucose
monosaccharides on particular EGF repeats were further elongated by
Fringe has not yet been determined. Preliminary indications suggest
that Fringe elongates O-fucose on some EGF repeats, but not
others (15).2 Hence, we
examined the possibility that Notch ligands were subject to
O-fucosylation and further Fringe modification by analyzing the presence and structure of O-fucose saccharides on Notch
ligands.

View larger version (60K):
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Fig. 1.
Notch ligands contain multiple potential
O-fucose glycosylation sites. The
alignment map of potential O-fucose modifications in
extracellular domains of Serrate/Jaggeds and Deltas. DSL domains are
shown as green hexagons, EGF repeats are represented as
circles. Red circles, EGF repeats containing the narrow
O-fucosylation consensus site,
C2XXGG(S/T)C3. Yellow
circles, EGF repeats with the broad O-fucose consensus
site C2X3-5(S/T)C3.
Interrupted EGF repeats are shown as broken circles.
sup5 indicates the location of point mutation (Gly to Arg)
in Dlsup5. Protein sequence accession numbers
are as follows: AAF55657 (Drosophila Delta), AAB61286 (human
Delta-1), CAA56865 (mouse Delta1), AAB37343 (rat Delta1), AAC59689
(chicken Delta1), AAC38017 (Xenopus Delta1), AF030031
(zebrafish Delta-A), AAL31528 (zebrafish Delta-D), BAB18580
(mouse Delta4), AAF81912 (human Delta4), AAF27299 (zebrafish Delta-C),
AAC41241 (zebrafish Delta-B), AAB37131 (Xenopus Delta2),
AAC33303 (rat Delta3), BAA33716 (mouse Delta3), CAA40148
(Drosophila Serrate), AAB84215 (human Jagged2), AAC52946
(rat Jagged-2), BAA21713 (chicken Serrate2), AAL08214 (zebrafish
Jagged2), AAL08213 (zebrafish Jagged1), AAL08216 (zebrafish Jagged3),
BAB59049 (Xenopus Serrate1), AAB06509 (Rat Jagged1),
AAF15505 (mouse Jagged1), AAC51731 (Human Jagged1), CAA64604 (chicken
Serrate1).
Mammalian Delta1 and Jagged1 Can Be Modified by O-Fucose and
Elongated by Manic Fringe in Vivo--
To examine whether mammalian
Notch ligands were modified with O-fucose, rat Delta1-Fc
or human Jagged1-Fc fusion proteins were transiently expressed in Lec1
Chinese hamster ovary cells. Lec1 cells are unable to synthesize
complex or hybrid-type N-linked glycans and were used in
these experiments to facilitate metabolic radiolabeling of
O-fucose saccharides (8). Subsequent to metabolic labeling
with [3H]fucose, Delta1-Fc and Jagged1-Fc proteins were
purified from the cell medium and analyzed by SDS-PAGE and
fluorography. Both proteins incorporated [3H]fucose.
Because Lec1 cells do not synthesize hybrid or complex-type N-glycans, these results strongly suggest the presence of
O-fucose on both of these Notch ligands (Fig.
2, lanes 1 and 3).
The presence of O-fucose was confirmed by gel-filtration
chromatography of O-linked saccharides released from
Delta1-Fc or Jagged1-Fc by alkali-induced
-elimination where the
radiolabel was almost exclusively in the form of the monosaccharide,
fucitol (Fig. 3, A and
B).
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To evaluate whether MFng was capable of modifying
O-fucose residues on Delta1 or Jagged1, the same experiment
was performed in Lec1 cells expressing MFng. The labeled,
O-fucose saccharides released from Delta1 or Jagged1
isolated from MFng-expressing Lec1 cells (Fig. 2, lanes 2 and 4) contained a significant amount of tetrasaccharide
(Fig. 3, C and D). Some increase in the amount of
di- and trisaccharide structures was also detected on Jagged1. The
structure of the tetrasaccharide species (as well as the di- and
trisaccharides) was confirmed by exoglycosidase sequencing with
sialidase and
-galactosidase as described previously (16). Analysis
of the resulting disaccharide by HPAEC showed it had the structure
GlcNAc
1,3fucitol (Fig. 3, E and F), confirming that MFng was forming the same structure on Delta1 and Jagged1 as was
previously reported on Notch1 (8, 16). Similar results were obtained
when endogenous Jagged1 from Chinese hamster ovary cells was analyzed
(data not shown). In summary, these results indicate that
O-fucose was present on the mammalian Notch ligands Delta1
and Jagged1 as a monosaccharide in Chinese hamster ovary cells that can
be elongated to a disaccharide by the
1,3-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase activity of Fringe,
and then further elongated by galactosyl- and sialyltransferases
endogenously expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells.
Drosophila Delta and Serrate Are Fringe Substrates in
Vitro--
No analogue of Lec1 cells exists for cultured
Drosophila cells. Hence, it is not possible to generate
efficient metabolic radiolabeling of O-fucose saccharides.
Thus, we took an alternate approach of expressing Notch ligands in
cultured Drosophila cells, purifying them, and determining
whether they serve as substrates for the glycosyltransferase activity
of purified Fringe protein in vitro. In principle, such an
experiment could support two important conclusions. First, because
Fringe requires an O-fucose in the context of an EGF repeat
for efficient glycosylation, the ability to serve as a Fringe substrate
provides strong evidence that the protein was first modified by
O-fucose. Second, in vitro labeling demonstrates
that the protein was indeed a substrate for Fringe. To produce Notch
ligand substrates for these assays, full-length, wild-type Serrate or
Delta were expressed in Drosophila S2 cells under the
control of a metallothionein promoter. These proteins were then
immunoprecipitated using antibodies against the native proteins and
protein A/G-agarose beads. In vitro glycosylation assays of
Drosophila Delta and Serrate proteins were then performed using affinity purified Drosophila Fringe and
UDP-[3H]GlcNAc as a sugar donor. The amount of Serrate
and Delta proteins was monitored by Western blotting (Fig.
4, A and B). The
transfer of [3H]GlcNAc was detected by scintillation
counting (not shown), as well as by fluorography of SDS-PAGE separated
proteins (Fig. 4, A and B). This analysis
demonstrated that both of the Drosophila Notch ligands,
Delta and Serrate, were substrates for the glycosyltransferase activity
of Fringe in vitro. This also provided evidence that both
Serrate and Delta were modified with O-fucose in
Drosophila S2 cells. Conversely, proteins lacking EGF
repeats, such as the IgGs used for the immunoprecipitation and also
present in the labeling reaction, were not substrates for Fringe.
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To establish the identity of the saccharide product of the Fringe
reaction on Notch ligands, O-linked saccharides were
released from Fringe-modified Serrate and Delta proteins and then
analyzed by HPAEC, revealing a disaccharide product that co-migrated
with a GlcNAc
1,3fucitol standard (Fig.
5). This confirms that the substrate for
the GlcNAc transferase activity of Fringe on Notch ligands was an
O-fucose, and that Fringe specifically elongates this
O-fucose with a
1,3-linked
N-acetylglucosamine.
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Sites of O-Fucose Elongation by Fringe on Drosophila Serrate
Protein and EGF Repeat 25 of Notch--
The large number of potential
sites for O-fucosylation of Notch and its ligands presents a
challenge to the identification of the biologically relevant sites of
Fringe action in its modulation of Notch signaling (Fig. 1). To begin
to address this question, it was first necessary to identify which
O-fucose sites could actually be elongated by Fringe. We
therefore conducted site-specific mutagenesis of Serrate, which
contains only four intact EGF repeats that match the
C2XXGG(S/T)C3 consensus (in EGF
repeats 3, 5, 12, and 13) (Figs. 6 and
7A). Four rounds of mutagenesis were employed to make the
amino acid substitutions that would prevent O-fucosylation.
Ser-4m, the Serrate protein with all four O-fucosylation
consensus mutated (EGFs 3, 5, 12, and 13) (Fig.
7A), was expressed in S2 cells
and isolated by immunoprecipitation as for wild-type Serrate.
Strikingly, this mutant form of Serrate was nonetheless a good
substrate for Fringe in vitro (Fig. 7B,
lane 2).
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Although Ser-4m lacks intact EGF repeats containing the C2XXGG(S/T)C3 consensus, it does contain one more EGF repeat that has this consensus, EGF 4. However, this repeat is interrupted by a 62-amino acid insertion between the third (Cys3) and fourth (Cys4) cysteines (Fig. 6). Thus, it is not clear if EGF 4 folds into a typical EGF structure, thus providing the additional target for O-FucT-1 and Fringe in the Ser-4m mutant protein. Alternatively (or additionally), some nonconsensus sites may be modified on Serrate protein.
Studies of O-FucT-1 activity using site-directed
mutants of a human factor IX EGF indicated that the substitution of the
conserved glycines in the consensus sequence
(C2XXGG(S/T)C3) for alanines (GG to
AG, or GA, or AA) preserved the fucosylation in vitro as
long as the EGF repeat was properly folded (20). A related sequence
motif, C2XXGA(S/T)C3, was present in
seven EGF repeats of Drosophila Notch, one of which, EGF
repeat 25, is of particular interest because it is an EGF repeat to
which a number of Abruptex mutations of Notch map
(34). Abruptex mutations are dominant alleles of
Notch that have been suggested to affect its sensitivity to
Fringe (35, 36). To begin to investigate the possibility that
C2XXGA(S/T)C3 motifs could be sites
of modification by O-FucT-1 and Fringe, we constructed
and expressed in S2 cells a transgene encoding FLAG-tagged EGF repeat
25 of Drosophila Notch polypeptide, which contains the
sequence C2QNGATC3. Notch-EGF25 polypeptide was
affinity purified on beads and then incubated with purified Fringe in
the presence of UDP-[3H]GlcNAc. Analysis of the reaction
products by fluorography revealed a labeled band of the predicted
mobility, corresponding to [3H]GlcNAc-modified Notch
EGF25-O-fucose (Fig. 8),
demonstrating that an EGF repeat containing the sequence
C2XXGA(S/T)C3 can be modified with
both O-fucose and Fringe.
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The modification of O-fucose on EGF25 of Notch
suggests that the C2XXGA(S/T)C3
sites in Serrate may also be modified by O-FucT-1 and
Fringe. These results open the possibility of modifying any Ser or Thr located amino-terminal to the third cysteine of an EGF
repeat with O-fucose. Besides consensus sites in EGF repeats
3, 4 (interrupted repeat), 5, 12, and 13, Serrate has such "broad
consensus" sites in repeats 2, 7, and 14 (Figs. 1 and 6). To assess
whether or not the O-fucosylation detected in the Ser-4m
mutant was limited to these alternate sites in EGF repeats, we
performed four additional rounds of mutagenesis to generate a Ser-8m
protein in which all 8 potential sites (EGF 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, and
14) were mutated to Ala or Val (Figs. 6 and 7A). No transfer
of GlcNAc by Fringe from UDP-GlcNAc onto this mutant form of Ser could
be detected, even though efficient labeling of wild-type and Ser-4m
mutant occurred in parallel experiments (Fig. 7B). These
results indicate that the ability of Fringe to modify Notch ligands was
limited to EGF repeats containing Ser or Thr before the third cysteine.
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DISCUSSION |
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Expansion of the Number of Substrates for O-FucT-1 and
Fringe--
In this study, we have experimentally demonstrated that
both Drosophila Notch ligands, Serrate and Delta, as well as
their mammalian counterparts, Delta1 and Jagged1, are modified with O-fucose and can then be further elongated with GlcNAc by
Fringe. The Notch ligands define a new class of substrates for
O-fucose modification and are only the third class of
proteins identified in which O-fucose is further elongated
by GlcNAc. The demonstration that Notch ligands were modified by
O-fucose raises the prospect that most or all EGF repeats
containing the C2XXGG(S/T)C3
O-fucose consensus site will bear this modification.
Moreover, although further work will be required to define the precise
structural requirements for O-fucosylation and
1,3-GlcNAc
elongation by Fringe, the observation that Drosophila
Notch-EGF repeat 25 was a Fringe substrate raises the prospect that
many other proteins not previously recognized as containing the
O-fucose consensus may in fact contain this modification. At
the same time, the inability of Ser-8m to act as a Fringe substrate
suggests that sites of Fringe modification will be limited to
C2X3-5(S/T)C3 (where
X3-5 are any 3-5 amino acid residues)
sequences within EGF repeats, which we define as broad consensus sites
(Fig. 1). If all broad consensus sites within Drosophila
Notch were actually utilized, this would increase the number of
potential sites for Fringe modification from 11 to 23. However,
previous work has demonstrated that not all broad consensus sites are
modified with O-fucose. For instance, protein C and protein
Z, both EGF repeat-containing serum glycoproteins, are unmodified with
O-fucose but contain the sequences
C2CGHGTC3 and
C2LHNGSC3, respectively (18). Thus, the
consensus site for O-fucose modification is broader than
C2XXGG(S/T)C3 but narrower than
C2X3-5(S/T)C3. It is
also possible that additional features of the three-dimensional structure of an EGF domain may contribute to substrate recognition by
O-FucT-1. Further work to define the precise structural
requirements for proteins to be in vivo substrates for
O-fucosylation and consequent
1,3-GlcNAc elongation by
Fringe is in progress.
Potential Importance of O-Fucosylation of Notch Ligands for Notch Signaling-- A number of observations suggest that modification of ligand by O-FucT-1 and/or Fringe is essential for their proper function. First, the presence of multiple O-fucose sites is highly conserved in all Notch ligands. Moreover, there are distinct patterns of conservation among different classes of ligands (Fig. 1). This conservation makes it likely that there is some functional significance to this modification. Second, genetic studies in Drosophila have identified a mutation in a potential O-fucose site in EGF repeat 3 of Delta. The Delta mutation Dlsup5 is a hypomorphic allele of Delta that was isolated as a dominant suppressor of the Notch split mutant phenotype (small-roughened eyes and bristle defects) (37). Dlsup5 mutation is caused by a Gly to Arg change in the third EGF repeat (Fig. 1, C2KNGGTC3 to C2KNGRTC3), destroying the CXXGG(S/T)C consensus, potentially eliminating or reducing O-fucosylation at this site. Third, a missense mutation resulting in the human disorder Alagille syndrome maps to a predicted O-fucosylation site in EGF5 of human Jagged1 (38). This mutation is very similar to the Dlsup5 mutation (C2SHGGTC3 to C2SHRGTC3 in EGF5), again potentially eliminating glycosylation at this site.
If O-fucose sites on the ligands are important for Notch signaling, how might they act? In fibroblast growth factor signaling, heparan sulfate proteoglycans play an essential role by mediating ligand dimerization, which is essential for receptor activation (39). There is some evidence that ligand multimerization may contribute to Notch activation (40), and many lectins are known to act as dimers or multimers (41). Thus, it is possible that a lectin recognizes O-fucose glycans on Notch ligands and contributes to Notch activation by facilitating ligand multimerization. The presence of O-fucose glycans on both Notch and its ligands presents the even more intriguing possibility that an O-fucose binding lectin could potentiate Notch activation by directly facilitating Notch-ligand binding.
Potential Importance of Elongating O-Fucose on Notch Ligands by Fringe for Notch Signaling-- Our results have shown that O-fucose on Notch ligands can be further elongated by Fringe. Genetic studies in Drosophila and assays with cultured mammalian cells have largely been interpreted as favoring the hypothesis that the Notch receptor is the key target of Fringe action (11, 14). Most notably, the action of Fringe in most contexts appears to be cell autonomous and in the signal receiving cell. Nonetheless, it remains possible that Fringe influences Notch signaling autonomously by modifying Notch ligands, because Notch ligands actually act as both paracrine agonists and autocrine antagonist of Notch receptor activation. The autocrine inhibition of Notch activation by Notch ligands is strictly cell autonomous, and has been termed "autonomous inhibition" or "cis-inactivation" (42-46). The mechanism of this inhibition is not known, but it has been hypothesized to result from binding between Notch and Notch ligands within the same cell in a fashion that does not activate Notch but precludes it from interacting with and being activated by ligands presented by neighboring cells. Biochemical evidence in favor of such interactions has been obtained recently from overexpression experiments in cultured mammalian cells (47). Thus, one possibility is that glycosylation of Notch ligands by Fringe could affect the ability of cells to respond to ligands expressed by neighboring cells through an influence on autonomous inhibition.
Alternatively, it could be that glycosylation by Fringe affects the
ability of Notch ligands to activate the Notch receptor in neighboring
cells. Although most studies have emphasized autonomous effects of
Fringe on Notch signaling, at least three studies have also described
nonautonomous effects of Fringe. In the Drosophila wing,
signaling by Serrate to neighboring cells actually appears to be
stimulated by co-expression with Fringe (11). During bristle development in Drosophila, Fringe expression appears to
decrease the ability of ectopically expressed Serrate or Delta to
signal to neighboring cells (45). In the developing thymus, Lunatic Fringe influences Notch signaling in cells adjacent to where it is
expressed (48). None of these studies provides strong evidence for a
functionally relevant modification of Notch ligands by Fringe, because
in all cases the influence of Fringe could be indirect. Nonetheless,
they suggest contexts in which a modification of Notch ligands by
Fringe may be significant. More importantly, the demonstration that
Notch ligands are substrates of Fringe now provides a biochemical basis
for further investigating this possibility.
| |
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
|---|
We are grateful to Trudy Correia for Drosophila transformation and thank Khushi Matta for generously provided disaccharide standards, Gerry Weinmaster for Delta1-Fc plasmid, Tom Vogt for Jagged1-Fc plasmid, Mark Muskavitch for guinea pig Delta antibodies, Eli Knust for rabbit Serrate antibodies, and the Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank for mouse Delta antibodies.
| |
FOOTNOTES |
|---|
* This work was supported by National Institutes of Health Grants GM61126 (to R. S. H.) and GM54594 (to K. D. I.) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (to K. D. I.).The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. The article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
§ Present address: Dept. of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&M University, 2128 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-2128.
Present address: Dept. of Cell Biology, Albert Einstein
College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Ave., New York, NY 10461.
** To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: 631-632-7336; Fax: 631-632-8575; E-mail: Robert.Haltiwanger@SUNYSB.EDU.
Published, JBC Papers in Press, May 29, 2002, DOI 10.1074/jbc.M204445200
2 L. Shao and R. S. Haltiwanger, unpublished observations.
| |
ABBREVIATIONS |
|---|
The abbreviations used are: EGF, epidermal growth factor-like; HPAEC, high pH anion exchange chromatography; O-FucT-1, GDP-fucose:protein O-fucosyltransferase; MFng, Manic Fringe.
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