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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 282, Issue 34, 24882-24892, August 24, 2007
Site-specific Fucosylation of Sialylated Polylactosamines by
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| ABSTRACT |
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2-3Gal
1-4Glc-NAc
1-3Gal
1-4GlcNAc
1-3Gal
1-4Glc
1-ceramide leads to two isomeric monofucosyl antigens, VIM2 and sialyl-Lex. Human
1,3/4-fucosyltransferase (FucT)-V catalyzes primarily the synthesis of VIM2, whereas human FucT-VI catalyzes primarily the synthesis of sialyl-Lex. Thus, these two enzymes have distinct "site-specific fucosylation" properties. Amino acid sequence alignment of these enzymes showed that there are 24 amino acid differences in their catalytic domains. Studies were conducted to determine which of the amino acid differences are responsible for the site-specific fucosylation properties of each enzyme. Domain swapping (replacing a portion of the catalytic domain from one enzyme with an analogous portion from the other enzyme) demonstrated that site-specific fucosylation was defined within a 40-amino acid segment containing 8 amino acid differences between the two enzymes. Site-directed mutagenesis studies demonstrated that the site-specific fucosylation properties of these enzymes could be reversed by substituting 4 amino acids from one sequence with the other. These results were observed in both in vitro enzyme assays and flow cytometric analyses of Chinese hamster ovary cells transfected with plasmids containing the various enzyme constructs. Modeling studies of human FucT using a structure of a bacterial fucosyltransferase as a template demonstrated that the amino acids responsible for site-specific fucosylation map near the GDP-fucose-binding site. Additional enzyme studies demonstrated that FucT-VI has
12-fold higher activity compared with FucT-V and that the Trp124/Arg110 site in these enzymes is responsible primarily for this activity difference. | INTRODUCTION |
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1,3/4-Fucosyltransferases (FucTs)3 catalyze transfer of fucose to GlcNAc residues present in lacto or neolacto series structures of cell-surface glycolipids and glycoproteins. Fucosylated structures are known to accumulate in many human cancers (1–4), function as ligands for leukocyte adhesion during inflammation (4, 5), and undergo developmental regulation (6–8). The diversity of naturally occurring
1,3/4-fucosylated structures found in human cells is controlled by a family of six distinct yet related FucTs with individual tissue distribution properties and acceptor substrate preferences. Among these six FucTs, FucT-III, FucT-V, and FucT-VI share >85% amino acid sequence homology and originated from a common ancestral gene via gene duplication (9–11). Genes for these enzymes form a cluster on chromosome 19 in humans (12–15). FucT-IV, FucT-VII, and FucT-IX share a lower amino acid sequence homology both between each other and with FucT-III, FucT-V, and FucT-VI. Additionally, they have distinct chromosomal localization. Genes for FucT-IV, FucT-VII, and FucT-IX have been mapped to chromosomes 11, 9, and 6, respectively (16–18).
Although all of these enzymes catalyze fucose transfer to (LacNAc)Gal
1-4GlcNAc chain acceptors to produce
1,3-fucosylated products, only FucT-III and FucT-V have been shown to catalyze fucose transfer to Gal
1-3GlcNAc chain acceptors in an
1,4-linkage (19–22). This property correlates with the presence of an aromatic amino acid residue in the acceptor-binding domain of the enzymes (22). In addition, more subtle differences in acceptor specificity exist. FucT-VII is specific for sialylated acceptors (23). Conversely, FucT-IX has specificity for neutral acceptors (24), and FucT-IV has a preference for neutral acceptors, but will also catalyze fucose transfer to sialylated acceptors (25).
Acceptor specificity differences have also been observed between FucT-V and FucT-VI. FucT-V preferentially transfers fucose to internal GlcNAc residues of polylactosamine structures compared with distal GlcNAc residues (26) and has been shown to catalyze the cell-surface expression of the VIM2 antigen (CD65s, III3FucVI3NeuAc-nLc6) in cells transfected with a human FucT-V expression vector (14). In contrast, FucT-VI preferentially transfers fucose to distal GlcNAc residues of neutral and sialylated polylactosamine structures, leading to the Lex and sialyl-Lex determinant structures, including V3FucVI3NeuAc-nLc6 (14, 27, 28). Thus, some of the human FucTs preferentially transfer fucose to an internal GlcNAc residue, producing the VIM2 antigen, whereas others transfer fucose to the GlcNAc residue near the nonreducing end (distal) of the acceptor oligosaccharide, producing Lex or sialyl-Lex (see Fig. 1). We refer to this transferase specificity as "site-specific fucosylation."
We have conducted a series of structure-function studies utilizing domain swaps and site-directed mutants of FucT-V and FucT-VI to identify the amino acids responsible for site-specific fucosylation of internal versus distal GlcNAc residues of VI3NeuAc-nLc6Cer. The results demonstrate that site-specific fucosylation is controlled by a 40-amino acid segment near the N terminus of the catalytic domain where 8 amino acid differences are located between FucT-V and FucT-VI. Amino acids at both ends of this segment are involved in defining the site-specific fucosylation properties of each enzyme. Substitution of as few as 2 of the 8 amino acids from one FucT into the sequence of the other is sufficient to alter its site-specific fucosylation properties. Our results also demonstrate that inherent differences in enzyme activity between FucT-V and FucT-VI correlate with a single amino acid change near the C terminus of the 40-amino acid segment.
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
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1-4GlcNAc-8-methoxycarbonyloctyl glycoside was obtained from Dr. Ole Hindsgaul (Carlsberg Laboratory). GDP-[14C]fucose and GDP-[3H]fucose were obtained from PerkinElmer Life Sciences. All restriction enzymes were purchased from New England Biolabs (Beverly, MA). Oligonucleotide primers were synthesized by Operon Technologies (Alameda, CA). The QuikChange site-directed mutagenesis kit was purchased from Stratagene (La Jolla, CA).
Preparation of FucT Domain Swap and Point Mutant Constructs
Full-length wild-type FucT-V in pcDNA3.0 and full-length wild-type FucT-VI in pcDNA3.1 were the starting materials for construction of all domain swap mutants (Table 1) and point mutants (Table 2). To create swap set 1, existing BamHI sites (two in FucT-V, one in FucT-VI, and one in the pcDNA vectors) had to be removed and one created in the desired location in both FucT-V and FucT-VI. A naturally occurring restriction site in both FucTs, MseI, was utilized to create swap set 2. Because there are also many MseI sites in the pcDNA vector, a slight alteration in strategy was required. Full-length DNAs for both FucTs were isolated from the pcDNA plasmids by digestion with EcoRI and XbaI. Both FucT DNAs were then digested with MseI. This was followed by gel purification and a three-fragment ligation consisting of the 5'-end of one FucT, the 3'-end of the other FucT, and the pcDNA vector. Swap set 3 was created by utilizing the BsrGI sites that naturally occur in both FucTs. The FucT plasmids were digested with BsrGI and XbaI, a site in both pcDNA vectors downstream of the FucT coding sequences. The four resulting fragments were separated by agarose gel electrophoresis and purified with a QIAEX gel extraction kit (Qiagen Inc., Valencia, CA). The fragment containing the 5'-end of FucT-V was ligated to the fragment containing the 3'-end of FucT-VI, and the fragment containing the 5'-end of FucT-VI was ligated to the fragment containing the 3'-end of FucT-V. Swap set 4 required that the naturally occurring EcoNI site at nucleotide 138 in the FucT-V DNA be mutated so that an EcoNI site farther downstream (nucleotide 728) could be used to generate a swap in the same manner as described above. Another pair of chimeric proteins, swap set 5, were constructed by digesting swap set 2 DNA with BsrGI and XbaI and swapping the resulting 3'-fragments. Mutants in which 3 amino acids were exchanged between the two FucTs (T87K/V89I/A101T of FucT-V and K73T/I75V/T87A of FucT-VI) were created by inserting SacII restriction sites into the coding regions of FucT-V and FucT-VI. Creation of the SacII site required primers containing two altered nucleotides (Table 2). The resulting DNA was digested with SacII and XbaI. After purification, the fragments were ligated as described above for swap set 3. All restriction site modifications were generated as silent mutations (i.e. amino acid sequences were unaffected).
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Expression of Recombinant FucTs
Wild-type and mutant constructs were transfected into COS-7 cells using Lipofectamine 2000. Thirty µg of plasmid DNA was used per 10-cm dish. Four days post-transfection, cells were washed with cold phosphate-buffered saline and scraped into microcentrifuge tubes. After two washes with 50 mM cacodylate (pH 6.7), cells were lysed with 0.2% Triton X-100 in 50 mM cacodylate (pH 6.7). The FucT activity present in the cell lysate was analyzed directly, or the lysate was stored at –80 °C for up to 4 weeks prior to assay. (Control experiments demonstrated that FucT activity was stable under these conditions for up to 2 months.) The Bradford assay was used to estimate the protein concentration of the lysate.
Enzyme Assays
Gal
1-3GlcNAc (Type 1), (LacNAc)Gal
1-4GlcNAc (Type 2), Fuc
1-2Gal
1-3GlcNAc (H-type 1), and H-type 2 (Fuc
1-2Gal
1-4GlcNAc) 8-Methoxycarbonyloctyl Glycoside Acceptors—Reaction mixtures contained 1 µmol of MOPS/NaOH buffer (pH 6.5), 0.125 µmol of MnCl2, 10 µg of bovine serum albumin, 3.0 nmol of GDP-fucose, 0.01 µCi of GDP-[3H]fucose, 20 nmol of 8-methoxycarbonyloctyl glycoside acceptor (type 1, type 2, H-type 1, and H-type 2; see Table 1 for structures), and 5 µlof enzyme fraction in a total volume of 20 µl. The reaction mixtures were incubated at 37 °C. Each enzyme preparation was assayed at four time points ranging from 30 min to 6 h. The reactions were stopped by the addition of 400 µl of water, and the reaction products were separated from substrate by reverse-phase chromatography (Sep-Pak C18) and quantified as described previously (30).
Glycolipid Acceptors—Reaction mixtures contained 2.5 µmol of HEPES (pH 7.2), 30 µg of either VI3NeuAc-nLc6Cer or nLc6Cer as the glycolipid acceptor, 100 µg of G-3634-A detergent, 1 µmol of MnCl2, 15 nmol of GDP-[14C]fucose (30,000 cpm/nmol), and 200–500 µg of protein from 0.2% Triton X-100-solubilized membrane fractions of transfected COS-7 cells in a total reaction volume of 0.1 ml. The reaction mixtures were incubated for 2–8 h at room temperature and stopped by the addition of 100 µl of CHCl3/CH3OH (2:1). The entire reaction mixture was streaked onto a 4-cm wide strip of Whatman No. 3 paper and chromatographed overnight with water. The glycolipid remaining at the origin of the dried chromatography paper was extracted twice with 5-ml washes of CHCl3/CH3OH/H2O (10:5:1) with incubation at 37 °C for 30 min in the solvent. The solvent was removed with a nitrogen stream. To analyze the products formed from reaction mixtures containing VI3NeuAc-nLc6Cer as the acceptor, the isolated product was desialylated by boiling in 1 ml of 1% acetic acid for 1 h. Five ml of absolute EtOH was added to the cooled tubes, and the mixture was dried with a nitrogen stream. The desialylated product was transferred to a 0.5-ml Eppendorf tube, dried, and dissolved in 20 µl of CHCl3/CH3OH (2:1). For reaction mixtures utilizing nLc6Cer as the acceptor, the desialylation step was omitted. A 5-µl aliquot from the processed reaction mixture was removed, spotted onto a high-performance TLC plate (Silica Gel 60; EM Science, Gibbstown, NJ), and developed in a solvent system consisting of n-propyl alcohol/water/concentrated NH4OH (7:3:1). After development, the plate was dried, and radiolabeled products were identified either by exposure of the plate to x-ray film or via a PhosphorImager. The amount of radioactivity present in each band was determined either by scraping and counting in a liquid scintillation counter or via PhosphorImager signal intensity using ImageQuant TL software for quantification.
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| RESULTS |
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1-4GlcNAc (LacNAc) disaccharides, with FucT-V preferentially transferring fucose from GDP-fucose to the internal GlcNAc residue and FucT-VI to the GlcNAc residue near the nonreducing terminus. Domain swapping and site-directed mutagenesis of full-length FucT-V and FucT-VI were used to identify the amino acids within the FucT-V and FucT-VI sequences responsible for this substrate specificity (i.e. site-specific fucosylation). Site-specific Fucosylation of Extended Chain Glycolipid Acceptors by Wild-type FucT-V and FucT-VI—Table 3 shows the distribution of the fucose transfer to the III- and V-GlcNAc residues of VI3NeuAc-nLc6Cer catalyzed by wild-type FucT-V and FucT-VI. The results demonstrate that FucT-V transfers >80% of the fucose to the internal III-GlcNAc residue, producing the VIM2 product, whereas the reverse occurs with FucT-VI: >80% preferential fucosylation of the V-GlcNAc residue, producing the sialyl-Lex product. A TLC analysis of these reaction products is shown in Fig. 2 (lanes 1 and 2, respectively). The preferential fucosylation of the III-GlcNAc residue is retained by FucT-V when the non-sialylated acceptor nLc6Cer is used (Fig. 2, lane 3). Interestingly, FucT-VI does not show site-specific fucosylation with the neutral glycolipid (Fig. 2, lane 4).
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FucT-V and FucT-VI Domain Swaps—There are 39 amino acid differences (including a 14-amino acid insertion in FucT-V) in the N-terminal non-catalytic domain between the FucT-V and FucT-VI sequences. Much higher sequence homology occurs in the catalytic domain of these enzymes, with 24 amino acid differences occurring in the C-terminal catalytic domains, which contain
300 residues (see alignment in Fig. 3). To determine which of the amino acid residue(s) are responsible for the site-specific fucosylation properties of these enzymes, a series of domain swap protein constructs were prepared, and their enzymatic properties were analyzed. Domain swap constructs were produced as shown in Table 1 and were generally composed of varying amounts of the N-terminal portion of one enzyme spliced onto the corresponding C-terminal portion of the other enzyme. In this way, constructs containing varying numbers of the amino acids from the N- and C-terminal portions of the enzyme that differ can be analyzed to successively refine the search for the amino acid(s) that impart the site-specific fucosylation property observed in the FucTs.
The results shown in Table 3 demonstrate that all domain swap mutants retained FucT activity. Analysis of the site-specific fucosylation properties of swap sets 1 and 2 demonstrated that it was possible to swap at least the first 85 amino acids from FucT-V for the analogous N-terminal 71 amino acids from FucT-VI without impacting the site-specific fucosylation property of FucT-V. This swapped region contains a total of 39 amino acid differences, including a 14-amino acid insertion in FucT-V that precedes the enzyme's catalytic domain. Similarly, swapping the first 71 amino acids from FucT-VI for the N-terminal 85 residues from FucT-V resulted in an enzyme with FucT-VI-like specificity. In each case, site-specific fucosylation was retained and was defined by the enzyme form on the C-terminal side of the swap. Thus, the N-terminal portion of these enzymes, containing most of the sequence heterogeneity, is not involved in defining their site-specific fucosylation properties. Analysis of the relative activity of FucT-V and FucT-VI demonstrated that wild-type FucT-VI had a 12-fold higher activity compared with wild-type FucT-V. The level of FucT activity observed for each domain swap protein reflected the activity level of the wild-type enzyme domain on the C-terminal side of each swap.
Additional swaps were created that focused on exchanging the more C-terminal portions of the catalytic domain between FucT-V and FucT-VI (swap sets 3 and 4). This resulted in the exchange of up to 16 of the 24 catalytic domain amino acid differences occurring at the most C-terminal portion of each enzyme. These enzyme swaps also retained the site-specific fucosylation and relative activity properties of the parental enzymes. However, in contrast to the results with swap sets 1 and 2, the enzyme characteristics observed (i.e. activity and site-specific fucosylation) were defined by the enzyme form at the N-terminal side of the swap. Taken together, the results obtained with swap sets 1–4 demonstrate that both the site-specific fucosylation and relative enzyme activity properties of FucT-V and FucT-VI are defined by a region of each protein containing 8 amino acid differences spanning a 40-amino acid segment composed of amino acids 87–126 of FucT-V and amino acids 73–112 of FucT-VI.
To confirm that this region of the FucT sequence is responsible for the site-specific fucosylation and activity differences observed, recombinant FucTs were prepared in which only the regions containing the 8 amino acid differences were swapped (swap set 5). The same enzymatic properties were found for these swaps as for swap sets 3 and 4. Thus, the site-specific fucosylation and relative activity differences between FucT-V and FucT-VI are controlled by 1 or more of the 8 amino acid differences found in the 40-amino acid segment composed of amino acids 87–126 of FucT-V and amino acids 73–112 of FucT-VI (see alignment in Fig. 3).
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Unlike the previous set of single amino acid mutants, the T87K FucT-V mutant and the K73T FucT-VI mutant transferred fucose nearly equally to the III- and V-GlcNAc residues of VI3NeuAc-nLc6Cer, generating approximately equal amounts of the VIM2 and sialyl-Lex products (Fig. 4B). These residues are located near the N terminus of the region identified in the domain swap studies as being critical for the site-specific fucosylation property of the FucTs. A similar loss of transfer selectivity occurred for the W124R FucT-V mutant and R110W FucT-VI mutant (Fig. 4B). Interestingly, these residues are located 37 amino acid residues away from Thr87 and Lys73 of FucT-V and FucT-VI near the C terminus of the region identified in the domain swap studies as being critical for the site-specific fucosylation property of the FucTs.
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In contrast to the mutants described above, substituting 4 of the amino acids from FucT-VI (T87K/W124R/D125E/I126V) into the FucT-V sequence produced a fucosylated product pattern (72% sialyl-Lex) similar to that of wild-type FucT-VI (Fig. 4C). Thus, incorporating only 4 amino acids from the FucT-VI sequence into FucT-V is sufficient to essentially reverse the site-specific fucosylation pattern of FucT-V. The complementary mutant of FucT-VI (K73T/R110W/E111D/V112I) produced predominantly VIM2 (75% VIM2), a pattern similar to that of wild-type FucT-V. Therefore, 4 amino acids from the FucT-V sequence reverse the site-specific fucosylation pattern of FucT-VI. FucT-V mutants containing two of these four substitutions (i.e. T87K/W124R) had site-specific fucosylation properties resembling those of wild-type FucT-VI, whereas the complementary mutant of FucT-VI (K73T/R110W) had the site-specific fucosylation properties of FucT-V. However, the change observed for these two amino acid mutants was not as dramatic as that observed for the proteins containing all four mutations.
Flow Cytometric Analysis of VIM2 (CD65s) Expression in Transfected Cells—To determine whether the results obtained from the in vitro enzyme assays described above could be replicated in an intact cell system, flow cytometric analyses of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells transfected with plasmids encoding either wild-type or mutant FucTs were performed for VIM2 expression using the anti-CD65s antibody. Transfection efficiencies in several experiments ranged from 10 to 30%. In one experiment,
7.2 and 9.4% of the CHO cells transfected with constructs of wild-type FucT-V and the T87K/W124R/D125E/I126V FucT-V mutant, respectively, were positive for cell-surface VIM2 (CD65s) expression. Only a small percentage of CD65s-positive cells were detected in cells transfected with either wild-type FucT-VI or the K73T/R110W/E111D/V112I FucT-VI mutant.
The CD65s MFI for wild-type FucT-V was nearly 9-fold higher than that for wild-type FucT-VI (Table 4). The domain swap mutant of FucT-VI containing amino acids 87–126 of FucT-V (swap set 5a in Table 1) had an MFI that was even greater than that of wild-type FucT-V and >6-fold higher than the domain swap mutant of FucT-V containing amino acids 73–112 of FucT-VI (swap set 5b in Table 1). Finally, the FucT-V mutant with 4 amino acids (T87K/W124R/D125E/I126V) from FucT-VI had the highest MFI for VIM2 expression, whereas its counterpart (FucT-VI with K73T/R110W/E111D/V112I from the FucT-V sequence) had the lowest MFI for VIM2 expression.
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FucT Activity of Site-directed Mutants—As described above, FucT enzyme activity measurements of the domain swaps with VI3NeuAc-nLc6Cer as the acceptor substrate demonstrated that 1 or more of the 8 amino acid differences occurring between amino acids 87 and 126 of FucT-V and amino acids 73 and 112 of FucT-VI are responsible for the approximate 12-fold difference in enzyme activity observed when comparing wild-type FucT-V and FucT-VI (Table 2). Enzyme activity measurements were made for each of the site-directed mutants created and compared with those for the wild-type enzymes.
The FucT-V mutant containing the FucT-VI amino acid substitutions T87K/W124R/D125E/I126V had FucT enzyme activity 12-fold greater than that of wild-type FucT-V (Table 5). Similarly, the mutant containing only three of the FucT-VI substitutions (W124R/D125E/I126V) had a nearly equivalent increase in FucT activity. The FucT-V mutant containing the W124R single substitution had a slightly lower activity increase (9-fold). Other FucT-V single, double, and triple mutants had FucT activity that differed only modestly compared with wild-type FucT-V.
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50% higher activity compared with wild-type FucT-VI, and K73T/I75V/T87A, which had
2-fold lower activity compared with wild-type FucT-VI.
Fucosyltransferase Activity for H-type 1 and H-type 2 Acceptors—Wild-type FucT-V is known to transfer fucose to both type 1 and type 2 acceptors and their corresponding
1,2-fucosylated derivatives, H-type 1 and H-type 2. Previously, Dupuy et al. (22) reported that, unlike wild-type FucT-V, the W124R FucT-V mutant cannot transfer fucose to an H-type 1 acceptor, but has a 4-fold higher FucT activity with an H-type 2 acceptor compared with wild-type FucT-V. They also reported that the R110W FucT-VI mutant is inactive with both H-type 1 and H-type 2 acceptor substrates.
We also found that wild-type FucT-V could catalyze the transfer of fucose to both H-type 1 and H-type 2 substrates, whereas the W124R FucT-V mutant had no activity with the H-type 1 acceptor (Table 6). However, we found that the activity of the W124R FucT-V mutant with an H-type 2 acceptor was dramatically increased (14-fold) compared with wild-type FucT-V and was similar to that of wild-type FucT-VI. The W124R/D125E/I126V FucT-V triple mutant had an activity profile mirroring that of the W124R FucT-V mutant.
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| DISCUSSION |
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We have conducted a series of studies utilizing recombinant enzymes prepared by reciprocally swapping portions of the catalytic domain between FucT-V and FucT-VI and by site-directed mutagenesis of 1 or more amino acid residues to define the amino acids that are responsible for the site-specific fucosylation properties. There exist a total of 24 amino acid differences between FucT-V and FucT-VI in the catalytic domain. Domain swapping isolated a 40-amino acid segment containing 8 of these differences that was found to be responsible for the VIM2 versus sialyl-Lex product specificity.
Product analysis of fucose transfer by site-directed mutants containing single and multiple amino acid changes among these 8 differences demonstrated that most of these amino acid differences are unrelated to the site-specific fucosylation properties of the FucTs. In contrast, the T87K mutant of FucT-V and the corresponding K73T mutant of FucT-VI showed little site-specific fucosylation preference. Similarly, significant reductions in site-specific fucosylation preferences were observed with the W124R mutant of FucT-V and the R110W mutant of FucT-VI. Mutants of FucT-V containing the W124R change along with changes in the adjacent amino acids (D125E and I126V) lost virtually all selectivity between internal versus distal GlcNAc residues. The same result was obtained with the R110W/E111D/V112I triple mutant of FucT-VI. Although the individual D125E and I126V mutants of FucT-V (and the individual E111D and V112I mutants of FucT-VI) did not, on their own, impact site-specific fucosylation results, the REV versus WDI sequence had a larger impact than the R110W and W124R point mutations alone.
The T87K/W124R/D125E/I126V FucT-V mutant preferentially synthesized sialyl-Lex, similar to wild-type FucT-VI, whereas the K73T/R110W/E111D/V112I FucT-VI mutant closely resembled FucT-V with respect to preferential VIM2 antigen synthesis. Thus, the site-specific fucosylation properties of wild-type FucT-V and FucT-VI were reversed when 4 amino acids were substituted into their wild-type sequence. The T87K/W124R FucT-V and K73T/R110W FucT-VI double mutants retained most of the sialyl-Lex versus VIM2 specificity of their 4-amino acid mutant counterparts. Thus, the amino acid positions corresponding to Thr87 and Trp124 of FucT-V and Lys73 and Arp110 of FucT-VI are primarily responsible for site-specific fucosylation properties that lead to the synthesis of either VIM2 or sialyl-Lex antigens.
The enzyme assay results were confirmed via flow cytometric analysis. The MFI obtained using an antibody specific for the VIM2 structure was increased from 9- to 15-fold in CHO cells expressing recombinant enzymes with a preference for fucosylation of internal GlcNAc residues (e.g. FucT-V and K73T/R110W/E111D/V112I FucT-VI) compared with CHO cells transfected with wild-type FucT-VI.
Previous studies have focused on structure-function properties of amino acids in the region identified in this study as being critical for site-specific fucosylation (19–22). The results collectively demonstrate that the N-terminal portion of the catalytic domain is involved in acceptor oligosaccharide binding. In particular, expression of the aromatic Trp111 residue of FucT-III (corresponding to Trp124 of FucT-V) has been shown to be primarily responsible for the type 1 chain acceptor specificity found in FucT-III and FucT-V (22). Additional evidence has demonstrated that higher type 1 chain specificity can be conferred upon FucT-V by substitution of Asn86 and Thr87 with His and Ile, respectively, amino acids found in the corresponding positions in FucT-III (20). Taken together, the results independently indicate that, in addition to having a role in defining type 1 versus type 2 chain specificity, amino acids in positions corresponding to Thr87 and Trp124 of FucT-V also function in defining a preference for the fucosylation of an internal versus distal GlcNAc residue of sialylated polylactosamines, leading to VIM2 or sialyl-Lex structures.
The relative activity of wild-type FucT-VI was
12-fold higher than that found for FucT-V. Most amino acid changes incorporated into the site-directed mutants evaluated in this study had either little or no impact on the FucT activity of the mutant proteins compared with the respective parental wild-type enzymes. In contrast, mutants containing the W124R change in FucT-V and the R111W change in FucT-VI reversed the relative activity relationship compared with their parental wild-type enzymes. In the series of mutants evaluated here, the presence of a Trp residue in this position not only affected the protein's ability to transfer fucose to type 1 chain acceptors, but also produced proteins with lower FucT activity. In contrast, mutant proteins with an Arg residue in place of the Trp residue had substantially increased FucT activity and lacked type 1 chain acceptor specificity. Therefore, this site also appears to be important for the inherent enzyme activity differences between FucT-V and FucT-VI. Thus, our results confirm and extend the results reported by Dupuy et al. (22).
Although no structural data for mammalian FucTs are presently available, the x-ray crystal structure of the Helicobacter pylori
1,3-FucT was recently solved (40). Using the sequence alignment proposed by Ge et al. (41), we constructed homology models of human FucT-V and FucT-VI with the program MODELLER (42) using the H. pylori crystal structure as the template. The cytoplasmic and transmembrane regions of FucT-V and FucT-VI were not included in the model, and the sequence of the human enzymes was extended by 4 residues beyond the C terminus visible in the H. pylori structure to include C-terminal cysteines that are involved in disulfide bridges. Although sequence identity to H. pylori is low in the N terminus and the C terminus is partially missing from the crystal structure, the cysteines shown to be involved in disulfide bridges in the human enzymes (43) align close enough in space in the resulting homology models to be covalently connected through their sulfur atoms prior to energy minimization of the models. Fig. 5 shows the resulting model of FucT-VI in a ribbon representation as visualized with PyMOL (45). In the final model, the residues identified to determine substrate specificity all align on the same side of the enzyme. Arg110, Glu111, and Val112 (in yellow) are located in a loop directly underneath the acceptor-binding site as indicated by the GDP-fucose in green taken from the H. pylori crystal structure. Lys73 is
30 Å away and located near the N terminus. The position of Lys73 is, however, not accurately defined in the model because of the limited sequence identity between the human and H. pylori N termini and may be closer to the active site in the human enzyme than suggested by the homology models.
Based on the results presented in this study and consistent with the model, it seems likely that Thr87 and Trp124 of FucT-V, which are separated by 37 amino acids in the linear sequence, are located in close proximity in three-dimensional space because of protein folding and form a portion of the acceptor-binding site. Protein structural analyses with these enzymes will be necessary to verify this speculation and to provide information on how various FucTs bind the same substrate but produce different fucosylated products.
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| FOOTNOTES |
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1 Present address: Amgen, 1120 Veterans Blvd., South San Francisco, CA 94080. ![]()
2 To whom correspondence should be addressed: Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, CA 94132. Tel.: 425-373-0171 (ext. 1026); Fax: 425-373-0181; E-mail: eholmes{at}sfsu.edu.
3 The abbreviations used are: FucTs,
1,3/4-fucosyltransferases; nLc6Cer, neolactohexosylceramide; type 1, Gal
1-3GlcNAc; type 2, (LacNAc)Gal
1-4Glc-NAc; H-type 1, Fuc
1-2Gal
1-3GlcNAc; H-type 2, Fuc
1-2Gal
1-4GlcNAc; MOPS, 4-morpholinepropanesulfonic acid; FACS, fluorescence-activated cell sorter; MFI, median fluorescence intensity; CHO, Chinese hamster ovary. Glycolipids are abbreviated according to the recommendations of the IUPAC-UAB Joint Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature (44). ![]()
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