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The human and bovine genomes each contain two expressed nuclear genes, called P1 and P2, for subunit c, a hydrophobic subunit of the membrane sector, Fo, of mitochondrial ATP synthase. Both P1 and P2 encode the same mature protein, but the associated mitochondrial import sequences are different. In sheep with the neurodegenerative disease ceroid lipofuscinosis, and also in humans with Batten's disease, unmodified subunit c accumulates in lysosome-derived organelles in a variety of tissues. However, the sequences of cDNAs for P1 and P2 from sheep with ceroid lipofuscinosis were identical to those in healthy control animals. Therefore, since there was no mutation in either of the mitochondrial import sequences of subunit c in the diseased animals, ceroid lipofuscinosis does not arise from changes in an import sequence causing mis-targeting of the c subunit to lysosomes. The levels of expression of P1 and P2 genes were approximately the same in diseased and healthy animals, and so the protein is unlikely to accumulate because of excessive transcription of either gene. Transcription of a spliced pseudogene related to P2 was detected in both a control animal and a sheep with ceroid lipofuscinosis. The transcripts encode amino acids 1-31 of the P2 mitochondrial targeting sequence. In the diseased animal, an arginine replaced a glutamine in the control sequence. However, restriction fragment analysis of genomic DNA from a further 12 sheep established that the sequence differences were not linked to ceroid lipofuscinosis.

The ceroid lipofuscinoses are a group of neurodegenerative lysosomal storage diseases of children and animals that are recessively inherited. In diseased individuals fluorescent storage bodies accumulate in a wide variety of cells, including neurons. Previous studies of these bodies isolated from tissues of affected sheep confirmed that the storage occurs in lysosomes, and showed that the storage body is mostly made of a single protein with an apparent molecular mass of 3500 Da with an N-terminal amino acid sequence that is the same as residues 1-40 of the c-subunit (or dicyclohexylcarbodi-imide-reactive proteolipid) of mitochondrial ATP synthase. In the present work we have shown by direct analysis that the stored protein is identical in sequence with the entire c-subunit of mitochondrial ATP synthase, a very hydrophobic protein of 75 amino acid residues. As far as can be detected by the Edman degradation, the stored protein appears not to have been subject to any post-translational modification other than the correct removal of the mitochondrial import sequences that have been shown in other experiments to be present at the N-terminal of its two different precursors. No other protein accumulates in the storage bodies to any significant extent. Taken with studies of the cDNAs for the c-subunit in normal and diseased sheep, these results indicate that the material that is stored in lysosomes of diseased animals has probably entered mitochondria and has been subjected to the proteolytic processing that is associated with mitochondrial import. This implies that the defect that leads to the lysosomal accumulation concerns the degradative pathway of the c-subunit of ATP synthase. An alternative, but less likely, hypothesis is that for some unknown reason the precursors of subunit c are being directly mis-targeted to lysosomes, where they become processed to yield a protein identical with the protein that is normally found in the mitochondrial ATP synthase assembly, and which then accumulates.

Analysis of the neutral urinary oligosaccharides in bovine, feline and human mannosidosis by thin-layer and gel-permeation chromatography has shown that the patterns of stored oligosaccharides in the three species are different. In bovine and feline mannosidosis the most abundant urinary oligosaccharide is also the most abundant in the tissues of each species. The predominant oligosaccharides were purified by a combination of gel-filtration, ion-exchange and thin-layer chromatography and shown to contain only mannose and N-acetylglucosamine by g.l.c. and g.l.c.--mass spectrometry. The probable composition and size of each oligosaccharide were predicted from its chromatographic properties, sugar composition and the known structure of asparagine-linked oligosaccharides. The bovine and feline oligosaccharides belonged to a homologous series of general composition Mann (GlcNAc)2, whereas the human oligosaccharides belong to a different series, MannGlcNAc. These structures suggest that lysosomal endohexosaminidase is not present in bovine and feline tissues. The predominant feline storage product, Man3(GlcNAc)2, was the expected storage product from the catabolism of complex asparagine-linked glycans. In contrast, the predominant bovine oligosaccharide, Man2(GlcNAc)2, probably lacks one of the alpha-linked mannose residues in the core region. A similar situation occurs in human mannosidosis. It is predicted that in these species either that the residual mutant alpha-D-mannosidase retains activity towards one of the core alpha-linked mannose residues or that another form of lysosomal alpha-D-mannosidase that is unaffected in these disorders occurs. It is concluded that the differences in storage products are due to differences in the catabolic pathways of glycoproteins among the species.

Residual acidic alpha-mannosidase, varying in amount up to approx. 15% of normal values, can be measured in various organs of a calf with mannosidosis. The highest specific activity and relative proportion of residual activity were found in the liver. Chromatography on DEAE-cellulose showed that the residual activity was associated with two components, which were eluted at comparable positions with those found in normal tissues. The residual activity had a lower thermal stability and a higher K(m) value for a synthetic substrate than did the normal enzyme. No differences in molecular weight or electrophoretic mobility between normal acidic alpha-mannosidase and the residual activity were observed by gel filtration and electrophoresis on cellulose acetate respectively. The isoelectric focusing profiles for the alpha-mannosidase in the normal and pathological livers were very similar. It is suggested that a mutant enzyme, resulting from a mutation in a structural gene, accounts for the residual acidic alpha-mannosidase in mannosidosis. The mutant enzyme, which cross-reacts with antiserum raised against normal bovine acidic alpha-mannosidase, is present at a decreased concentration compared with the normal enzyme. There is a correlation between the concentrations of residual activity and cross-reacting material in mannosidosis. alpha-Mannosidase with a pH optimum of 5.75 and which is activated by Zn(2+) was also detected in the liver of the calf with mannosidosis. However, it is probably not a product of the defective gene because addition of Zn(2+) indicated that it was also present in normal tissues.

Acidic alpha-mannosidase (EC 3.2.1.24), optimum pH 4.25, is absent from the plasma of Angus calves with mannosidosis, and the residual alpha-mannosidase activity has an optimum pH of 5.5, intermediate between that of the acidic and neutral alpha-mannosidases. This 'intermediate' alpha-mannosidase differs from the acidic form in its kinetic properties, its lack of marked inhibition by EDTA and its thermolability at 55 degrees C and physiological pH. Isoelectric focusing and ion-exchange chromatography show that it exists in at least two forms. The presence of a secondary peak at pH 5.5 in the pH/activity profile of normal plasma and the effect of heating at 55 degrees C indicate that such a form is present in normal plasma. The residual activity in the plasma of a calf with mannosidosis is therefore probably not the product of the defective gene. A differential assay, based on their different stabilities at 55 degrees C, has been developed for measuring the acidic and intermediate alpha-mannosidases in plasma. There was no correlation between the concentrations of the two enzymes in the plasma of Angus cows heterozygous for mannosidosis or in the plasma of normal animals. This precludes the use of the intermediate form as a reference enzyme for the acidic activity in a test for heterozygosity for mannosidosis based on the gene-dosage phenomenon. The concentrations of the intermediate activity were comparable in normal animals and animals homozygous or heterozygous for mannosidosis.

Normal calf alpha-mannosidase activity exists in at least three forms separable by chromatography on DEAE-cellulose and by starch-gel electrophoresis. Two components, A and B, have optimum activity between pH3.75 and 4.75, but component C has an optimum of pH6.6. Components A and B are virtually absent from the tissues of a calf with mannosidosis and the residual activity is due to component C. The acidic and neutral forms of alpha-mannosidase differ in their molecular weights and sensitivity to EDTA, Zn(2+), Co(2+) and Mn(2+). An acidic alpha-mannosidase component (pH optimum 4.0) accounts for most of the activity in normal plasma but it is absent from the plasma of a calf with mannosidosis. Although the acidic alpha-mannosidase component is probably related to tissue components A and B, it can be distinguished from them by ion-exchange chromatography and gel filtration. The optimum pH of the low residual activity in the plasma from a calf with mannosidosis is pH5.5-5.75. The results support the hypothesis that Angus-cattle mannosidosis is a storage disease caused by a deficiency of lysosomal acidic alpha-mannosidase activity.

A disease of Angus cattle previously known as pseudolipidosis has been shown to be an inherited lysosomal storage disease, in which an oligosaccharide containing mannose and glucosamine is the storage substance. Diseased animals have a near-absolute deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme, alpha-mannosidase, whereas heterozygotes have a partial deficiency of this enzyme. The condition is analogous to the human disease known as mannosidosis.