The interdomain flexible linker of the polypeptide GalNAc transferases dictates their long-range glycosylation preferences

Matilde De Las Rivas, Erandi Lira-Navarrete, Earnest James Paul Daniel, Ismael Companõn, Helena Coelho, Ana Diniz, Jesús Jiménez-Barbero, Jesús M. Peregrina, Henrik Clausen, Francisco Corzana, Filipa Marcelo, Gonzalo Jiménez-Osés, Thomas A. Gerken, Ramon Hurtado-Guerrero*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

37 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

The polypeptide GalNAc-transferases (GalNAc-Ts), that initiate mucin-type O-glycosylation, consist of a catalytic and a lectin domain connected by a flexible linker. In addition to recognizing polypeptide sequence, the GalNAc-Ts exhibit unique long-range N- A nd/or C-terminal prior glycosylation (GalNAc-O-Ser/Thr) preferences modulated by the lectin domain. Here we report studies on GalNAc-T4 that reveal the origins of its unique N-terminal long-range glycopeptide specificity, which is the opposite of GalNAc-T2. The GalNAc-T4 structure bound to a monoglycopeptide shows that the GalNAc-binding site of its lectin domain is rotated relative to the homologous GalNAc-T2 structure, explaining their different long-range preferences. Kinetics and molecular dynamics simulations on several GalNAc-T2 flexible linker constructs show altered remote prior glycosylation preferences, confirming that the flexible linker dictates the rotation of the lectin domain, thus modulating the GalNAc-Ts' long-range preferences. This work for the first time provides the structural basis for the different remote prior glycosylation preferences of the GalNAc-Ts.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1959
JournalNature Communications
Volume8
Issue number1
Number of pages11
ISSN2041-1723
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2017

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