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Upon incubation of UDP-N-acetyl[14C]glucosamine and GDP-mannose with rough microsomes from rat liver, GlcNAc incorporation occurred mostly into acid-labile products extractable by chloroform/methanol that were presumed to be dolichol pyrophosphate GlcNAc and, for a small part, dolichol pyrophosphate N,N'-diacetylchitobiose. The production of this latter glycolipid was greatly enhanced when rough microsomes, previously treated with pyrophosphate, were incubated in the presence of GTP. Furthermore, under these particular conditions, high levels of radioactivity were obtained in products precipitated by trichloroacetic acid and not extracted by chloroform/methanol. The label appeared in acid-labile and in acid-resistant products, presumed to be dolichol pyrophosphate mannosylated oligosaccharides, and glycoproteins, respectively. From these results, dolichol pyrophosphate N,N'-diacetylchitobiose appears to be an obligate metabolic intermediate in protein glycosylation by this system. Whether or not dolichol pyrophosphate N,N'-diacetylchitobiose must be mannosylated prior to transfer of the N,N'-diacetylchitobiose moiety to protein is an open matter, because GlcNAc was also incorporated into acid-resistant products when the reaction was carried out in absence of GDP-mannose.

The distribution of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) glycohydrolase in rat liver was investigated by subcellular fractionation and by isolation of hepatocytes and sinusoidal cells. The behavior of NAD glycohydrolase in subcellular fractionation was peculiar because, although the enzyme was mainly microsomal, plasma membrane preparations contained distinctly more NAD glycohydrolase than could be accounted for by their content in elements derived from the endoplasmic reticulum or the Golgi complex identified by glucose-6-phosphatase and galactosyltransferase, respectively. When microsomal and plasmalemmal preparations were brought to equilibrium in a linear-density gradient, NAD glycohydrolase differed from these enzymes and behaved like 5'-nucleotidase and alkaline phosphodiesterase I. NAD glycohydrolase was markedly displaced towards higher densities after treatment with digitonin. This behavior in density-gradient centrifugation strongly suggests that NAD glycohydrolase is an exclusive enzyme of the plasma membrane. NAD glycohydrolase differed clearly from other plasmalemmal enzymes when the liver was fractionated into hepatocytes and sinusoidal cells; its specific activity was considerably greater in sinusoidal cell than in hepatocyte preparations. Further subfractionation of sinusoidal cell preparations into endothelial and Kupffer cells by counterflow elutriation showed that NAD glycohydrolase is more active in Kupffer cells. We estimate that the specific activity of NAD glycohydrolase activity is at least 65-fold higher at the periphery of Kupffer cells than at the periphery of hepatocytes. As the enzyme shows not structure-linked latency and is an exclusive constituent of the plasma membranes, we conclude that it is an ectoenzyme that cannot lead to a rapid turnover of the cytosolic pyridine nucleotides.

Rat liver pI-6.4 esterase was purified from microsomes (microsomal extracts) and used to generate antibodies in the rabbit. Two active enzyme forms, similarly sensitive to endo-H (endo-beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase H (EC 3.2.1.96), but differing slightly in polypeptide chain length, were present in the preparation. In microsomes, immunoblots revealed a single form, with Mr congruent to 62,000, identical with the large component of the purified enzyme, indicating that the second component is an artefact. Rabbit reticulocyte lysates and wheat germ extracts programmed with RNA extracted from total or bound polysomes synthesized a single immunoreactive 61 kDa polypeptide, which was not formed with RNA extracted from free polysomes. The immunoreactive product synthesized in the presence of dog pancreas microsomes was slightly larger (62 kDa); like the authentic enzyme, it bound to concanavalin A and was decreased in molecular size to 60 kDa by the action of endo-H. Thus the enzyme is synthesized with a short cleavable sequence and bears at least one high-mannose oligosaccharide chain. Metabolic labelling in hepatocytes cultured with [35S]methionine also generated a single immunoreactive polypeptide of 62 kDa, which was decreased to 60 kDa in size by treatment with endo-H or addition of tunicamycin to the culture medium. This confirms the molecular homogeneity and the glycosylation of the enzyme in the intact cell. Culture media contained no pI-6.4-esterase-related protein, whether tunicamycin was present or not. The processing steps in the synthesis of pI-6.4 esterase are thus, as for other esterases of the endoplasmic reticulum [Robbi & Beaufay (1986) Eur. J. Biochem. 158, 187-194; (1987) Biochem. J. 248, 545-550] indistinguishable from those occurring early in the synthesis of secretory proteins. Glycosylation is apparently not the sorting signal responsible for their retention in the endoplasmic reticulum.

Biosynthesis of the rat liver microsomal esterase with pI 6.1 was investigated in cell-free systems and in cultured hepatocytes, by using a rabbit antiserum. Protein synthesis directed by total rat liver RNA in wheatgerm extract or reticulocyte lysate generated a single immunoprecipitable product, also found with the RNA extracted from bound, but not from free, polysomes. When dog pancreas microsomal fractions were included, reticulocyte lysates gave two processed products, a prominent one slightly larger, and another slightly smaller, than the precursor, both resistant to exogenous proteinases and, hence, segregated within vesicles. The processing was co-translational; it consisted of the removal of a peptide fragment and, for the large component, the addition of a single oligosaccharide chain. Indeed, this component bound to concanavalin A-Sepharose and gave the small one (approximately 2000 Mr loss) by cleavage with endo-beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase H (endo-H). A single labelled peptide was precipitated from hepatocytes incubated with [35S]methionine. Its apparent Mr was decreased by approximately 2000 after treatment with endo-H; it was then identical with that of an unglycosylated form produced in hepatocytes poisoned with tunicamycin. Even in that case, immunoreactive peptides were not detected in the culture medium. Whether synthesized in reticulocyte lysate or in hepatocytes, the glycosylated forms migrated in SDS/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis as the purified enzyme labelled with [3H]di-isopropyl fluorophosphate. Thus, although pI-6.1 esterase is not secreted, its biosynthesis is, as yet, indistinguishable from that of secretory proteins. Its oligosaccharide moiety is apparently not the structural element that retains it in the endoplasmic reticulum.

Rough microsomes from rat liver have been subjected to various treatments and incubated afterwards with UDP-N-acetyl-[14C]glucosamine and GDP-mannose in the presence of GTP (0.5 mM), or of other nucleotides. In agreement with earlier results from this laboratory, the preparations previously treated to strip off the ribosomes and incubated in the presence of GTP assembled dolichol-linked oligosaccharides and transferred these oligosaccharides to endogenous protein acceptors much more actively than untreated preparations, or stripped preparations incubated in the absence of GTP. Thin-section and freeze-fracture electron microscopy have revealed that pyrophosphate-treated preparations incubated with GTP are aggregated and contain numerous vesicles as large as 1-4 micrometer, or more. Such large vesicles were not present before incubation and thus were considered to have been formed through coalescence of regular-sized ones. Like glycosylation, the coalescence phenomenon depends upon the removal of ribosomes, because it occurred whether ribosomes had been stripped, at least partly, with pyrophosphate, KCl, or puromycin, but not when rough microsomes had been washed with 0.25 M sucrose or with KCl and MgCl2. Like glycosylation, it also depends on the addition of GTP and was not induced by ATP, UTP, CTP, and nonhydrolysable analogues of GTP. Rough microsomes coalesced, however, when pyrophosphate-treated preparations were incubated with GTP in the absence of nucleotide sugars, or in the presence f tunicamycin, indicating that the coalescence phenomenon does not result from the glycosylation of some membrane constituents.

Preparations enriched with plasmalemmal, outer mitochondrial, or Golgi complex membranes from rat liver were subfractionated by isopycnic centrifugation, without or after treatment with digitonin, to establish the subcellular distribution of a variety of enzymes. The typical plasmalemmal enzymes 5'-nucleotidase, alkaline phosphodiesterase I, and alkaline phosphatase were markedly shifted by digitonin toward higher densities in all three preparations. Three glycosyltransferases, highly purified in the Golgi fraction, were moderately shifted by digitonin in both this Golgi complex preparation and the microsomal fraction. The outer mitochondrial membrane marker, monoamine oxidase, was not affected by digitonin in the outer mitochondrial membrane marker, monoamine oxidase, was not affected by digitonin in the out mitochondrial membrane preparation, in agreement wit its behavior in microsomes. With the exception of NADH cytochrome c reductase (which was concentrated in the outer mitochondrial membrane preparation), typical microsomal enzymes (glucose-6-phosphatase, esterase, and NADPH cytochrome c reductase) displayed low specific activities in the three preparations; except for part of the glucose-6-phosphatase activity in the plasma membrane preparation, their density distributions were insensitive to digitonin, as they were in microsomes. The influence of digitonin on equilibrium densities was correlated with its morphological effects. Digitonin induced pseudofenestrations in plasma membranes. In Golgi and outer mitochondrial membrane preparations, a few similarly altered membranes were detected in subfractions enriched with 5'-nucleotidase and alkaline phosphodiesterase I. The alterations of Golgi membranes were less obvious and seemingly restricted to some elements in the Golgi preparation. No morphological modification was detected in digitonin-treated outer mitochondrial membranes. These results indicate that each enzyme is associated with the same membrane entity in all membrane preparations and support the view that there is little overlap in the enzymatic equipment of the various types of cytomembranes.

To establish on a quantitative basis the subcellular distribution of the enzymes that glycosylate dolichyl phosphate in rat liver, preliminary kinetic studies on the transfer of mannose, glucose, and N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphate from the respective (14)C- labeled nucleotide sugars to exogenous dolichyl phosphate were conducted in liver microsomes. Mannosyltransferase, glucosyltransferase, and, to a lesser extent, N- acetylglucosamine-phosphotransferase were found to be very unstable at 37 degrees C in the presence of Triton X-100, which was nevertheless required to disperse the membranes and the lipid acceptor in the aqueous reaction medium. The enzymes became fairly stable in the range of 10-17 degrees C and the reactions then proceeded at a constant velocity for at least 15 min. Conditions under which the reaction products are formed in amount proportional to that of microsomes added are described. For N- acetylglucosaminephosphotransferase it was necessary to supplement the incubation medium with microsomal lipids. Subsequently, liver homogenates were fractionated by differential centrifugation, and the microsome fraction, which contained the bulk of the enzymes glycosylating dolichyl phosphate, was analyzed by isopycnic centrifugation in a sucrose gradient without any previous treatment, or after addition of digitonin. The centrifugation behavior of these enzymes was compared to that of a number of reference enzymes for the endoplasmic reticulum, the golgi complex, the plasma membranes, and mitochondria. It was very simily to that of enzymes of the endoplasmic reticulum, especially glucose-6-phosphatase. Subcellular preparations enriched in golgi complex elements, plasma membranes, outer membranes of mitochondira, or mitoplasts showed for the transferases acting on dolichyl phosphate relative activities similar to that of glucose- 6-phosphatase. It is concluded that glycosylations of dolichyl phosphate into mannose, glucose, and N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphate derivatives is restricted to the endoplasmic reticulum in liver cells, and that the enzymes involved are similarly active in the smooth and in the rough elements.

The membrane barrier of stripped rough microsomes from rat liver is markedly altered on incubation with GTP at 37 degrees C: after 30 min the structure-linked latency of mannose-6-phosphatase was considerably reduced, and esterase and nucleoside diphosphatase were partly released into the suspension medium. This phenomenon was already maximal with 30 microM GTP and was specific for this nucleotide. Similar conditions enhance the dolichol-mediated glycosylation of protein in microsomes incubated with uridine diphosphate N-acetylglucosamine and guanosine diphosphate mannose (Godelaine, D., H. Beaufay, M. Wibo, and A. Amar-Costesec, 1979, Eur. J. Biochem., 96:17-26; Godelaine, D., H. Beaufay, and M. Wibo, 1979, Eur. J. Biochem., 96:27-34). The GTP-induced permeability and glycosylation activities evolved in parallel in rough microsomes subjected to various treatments to detach the ribosomes and were maximal after removal of congruent to 60% of the RNA. In addition, GTP had no effect of this type in smooth microsome subfractions. Triton X-100, in spite of complex inhibitory effects on glycosylation reactions, mimicked the action of GTP by increasing the amount of microsomal dolichylphosphate that reacts with uridine diphosphate N-acetylglucosamine and by enhancing synthesis of dolichylpyrophosphoryl-chitobiose at concentrations greater than 2 mg/ml. Thus, GTP may activate dolichol-mediated glycosylation reactions in stripped microsomes by lowering the permeability barrier that prevents access of sugar nucleotides to the inner aspect of the membrane. The genuine role of GTP in the functioning of the endoplasmic reticulum membrane in situ remains unknown. Because GTP seems to act only on rough microsomes, we hypothesize that this role is somehow related to biosynthesis of protein by the rough endoplasmic reticulum.

Resident peritoneal macrophages of the mouse, cultivated for 3 d, have been studied by quantitative subcellular fractionation using differential centrifugation and density equilibration in linear gradients of sucrose. Density equilibration experiments were carried out on untreated cytoplasmic extracts, on cytoplasmic extracts treated with digitonin or sodium pyrophosphate, and on cytoplasmic extracts derived from cells cultivated for 24 h in the presence of Triton WR-1339. The enzyme distributions obtained distinguished six typical behaviors characteristic of distinct subcellular entities. Acid α-galactosidase and other acid hydrolases displayed the highest average velocity of sedimentation and equilibrium density. Culturing in a medium that contained Triton WR-1339 markedly decreased their density, most likely as a result of Triton WR-1339 accumulation within lysosomes. Cytochrome c oxidase and the sedimentable activity of malate dehydrogenase showed a narrow density distribution centered around 1.17, very similar under all the experimental situations; their rate of sedimentation fell within the range expected for mitochondria. Catalase was particle-bound and exhibited structure-linked latency (80 percent); it was released in soluble and fully active form by digitonin, but this required a much higher concentration than in the case of lysosomal enzymes. Differences relative to all the other enzymes studied suggest the existence of a particular species of organelles, distinctly smaller than mitochondria, and possibly related to peroxisomes. Many enzymes were microsomal in the sense that the specific activities, but not the yields, were greater in microsomes than in other fractions obtained by differential centrifugation. These enzymes were distinguished in three groups by their properties in density equilibration experiments. NAD glycohydrolase, alkaline phosphodiesterase I, and 5'-nucleotidase had low equilibrium densities but became noticeably more dense after addition of digitonin. The other microsomal enzymes were not shifted by digitonin, in particular N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase and galactosyltransferase, which otherwise equilibrated at the same position in the gradient. We assign the digitonin-sensitive enzymes to plasma membranes and possibly to related endomembranes of the cells, and the two glycosyltransferases to elements derived from the Golgi apparatus. Finally, α-glucosidase, sulphatase C, NADH cytochrome c reductase, NADPH cytochrome c reductase, and mannosyltransferase, equilibrated at a relatively high density but were shifted to lower density values after addition of sodium pyrophosphate. These properties support their association with elements derived from the endoplasmic reticulum.

The distribution of cytochrome b5 in rat liver microsomes, and in two microsomal subfractions isolated by density equilibration in a linear sucrose gradient, was studied under the electron microscope by means of a ferritin-labeled hybrid anti-cytochrome b5/anti-ferritin antibody. Results of this study show that cytochrome b5 is present in essentially all microsomal vesicles derived from endoplasmic reticulum (ER), whether rough or smooth. Thus, the dissociation of ER constituents into two groups (b and c), achieved by subfractionating microsomes by isopycnic centrifugation (Beaufay, H., A. Amar-Costesec, D. Thines-Sempoux, M. Wibo, M. Robbi, and J. Berthet. 1974. J. Cell Biol. 61:213-231), does not reflect the association of each group with distinct microsomal particles but reflects rather an enzymatic heterogeneity of the ER: the ratio of group c to group b enzymes increasing with the density and ribosome load of the particles.

The localization of cytochrome b5 on the membranes of various subcellular organelles of rat liver was studied by a cytoimmunological procedure using anti-cytochrome b5/anti-ferritin hybrid antibodies and ferritin as label. For this study, highly purified and biochemically characterized membrane preparations were employed. Outer mitochondrial membranes were found to be heavily labeled by the hybrid antibodies whereas Golgi and plasma membranes were not marked by the reagent. Peroxisome membranes were moderately labeled by the hybrid antibodies, suggesting that they may contain some cytochrome b5. The preparation and purification of hybrid antibodies without peptic digestion is described and an analysis made of the composition of the final reagent product.

The aim of this work was to establish, on a quantitative basis, the subcellular distribution of the enzyme system that converts arachidonic acid into prostaglandin (PG) E2 in mouse resident peritoneal (MRP) macrophages. Kinetic studies were conducted on cell-free extracts derived from cells cultivated for 1 d, using [1-14C]arachidonic acid as substrate and measuring the label in PGE2 after extraction and thin layer chromatography. The activity was synergistically enhanced by L-adrenaline and reduced glutathione, inhibited by indomethacin, and linearly related to the concentration of the cell-free extract. It was labile at 0 degrees C in the medium used for homogenization and fractionation of the cells (half-life less than 2 h). Addition of catalase (0.15 mg/ml) to the suspension medium increased the initial activity (by congruent to 70%) and the stability (half-life congruent to 6 h) of the enzyme in cytoplasmic extracts. It enabled us to establish the density distribution after isopycnic centrifugation in a linear gradient of sucrose. The sample centrifuged consisted of untreated cytoplasmic extracts, or cytoplasmic extracts treated with digitonin and Na pyrophosphate. Comparison of the centrifugation behavior of PGE2 synthesis activity with that of various enzymes used as reference for the major subcellular entities has revealed that PGE2 synthesis fairly fits the density profile of sulfatase C in each case. The conclusion is that at least the rate-limiting reaction in the conversion of arachidonic acid into PGE2 is catalyzed by an enzyme associated with the endoplasmic reticulum.