Formation of unusual mannosamine-containing lipid-linked oligosaccharides in Madin-Darby canine kidney cell cultures.

Glc3Man9(GlcNAc)2-pyrophosphoryl-dolichol is the major lipid-linked oligosaccharide (LLO) produced by Madin-Darby canine kidney cells in culture. However, when these cells are incubated in the presence of millimolar concentrations of mannosamine and labeled with [2-3H]mannose, they accumulate various LLO that have smaller-sized oligosaccharides with unusual structures and the Glc3Man9(GlcNAc)2-pyrophosphoryl-dolichol is not detected. Thus in the presence of 10 mM mannosamine, more than 80% of the oligosaccharides are eluted from concanavalin A-Sepharose with 10 mM alpha-methylglucoside, indicating that they no longer have the tight-binding characteristics of control oligosaccharides. In addition, 20-40% of these oligosaccharides bind to Dowex 50-H+, indicating the presence of mannosamine in these structures. Interestingly enough, these abnormal oligosaccharides are still transferred to protein. The mannosamine-induced oligosaccharides were separated into neutral and basic fractions on a cation exchange resin. The neutral oligosaccharides ranged in size from hexose3(GlcNAc)2 to hexose10(GlcNAc)2 with the major species being Man5(GlcNAc)2 to Man7(GlcNAc)2. These oligosaccharides were almost completely susceptible to digestion by alpha-mannosidase and by endoglucosaminidase H. The basic oligosaccharides showed anomolous behavior on the Bio-Gel P-4 columns and appeared to be of small size on the standard columns, ranging from hexose2 to hexose4. However, most of these oligosaccharides were susceptible to digestion by endoglucosaminidase H as well as by alpha-mannosidase, suggesting that they were of different size and structure than would be predicted from the gel filtration patterns. Significantly, when the basic oligosaccharides were subjected to chemical N-acetylation, or when the gel filtration columns were run at high pH rather than at the usual pH of 3.0, the basic oligosaccharides migrated like much larger oligosaccharides. These data provide strong evidence to indicate that some mannosamine can be incorporated into the LLO, and that these mannosamine-containing oligosaccharides exhibit unusual properties. Preliminary studies indicated that Madin-Darby canine kidney cells do incorporate label from [3H]mannosamine into the LLO.