As the most common type of protein glycosylation, N-glycosylation begins with the synthesis of the dolichol-linked oligosaccharide (DLO) precursor in the endoplasmic reticulum. The mannosyltransferase Alg1 catalyzes the addition of the first mannose molecule to DLO, serving as a key enzyme in this biochemical pathway. The defect of human ALG1 gene can lead to the congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG), i.e., ALG1-CDG. Therefore, it is of great significance to establish the expression and activity assay system of Homo sapiens Alg1 (HsAlg1) in vitro. In this study, full-length plasmid pET28a-His6-HsAlg1 and transmembrane domain-lacking plasmid pET28a-His6-HsAlg1_23-464 were constructed and expressed in Escherichia coli, and the activity of recombinant HsAlg1 and HsAlg1_23-464 was measured by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS) with dolichyl-pyrophosphate GlcNAc2 (DPGn2) as the substrate. The results showed that HsAlg1 had transglycosylation activity, while the activity decreased after protein purification, which was partially restored upon re-addition of membrane components. However, HsAlg1_23-464 was unable to catalyze glycosylation. The results indicate that the N-terminal transmembrane domain (TMD) of HsAlg1 plays an important role in the catalytic reaction. This study lays a foundation for further expression and activity analysis of ALG1-CDG-related mutants.
Humans ; Escherichia coli/metabolism* ; Mannosyltransferases/biosynthesis* ; Glycosylation ; Recombinant Proteins/metabolism* ; Protein Domains

Yeast is a widely used host for recombinant protein expression. However, glycoproteins derived from yeast contain N-glycan of high mannose type and are usually hyperglycosylated. alpha-1,6-mannosyltransferases gene (och1) encodes the enzyme that initiates the first step of out-chain elongation of high mannose type N-glycan in yeast, which is different from that in human. So, a high efficient method to knockout target gene by two-step recombination was established and was used to delete och1. In the first recombinant, a plasmid with och1::ADE1 and ura3 gene was linearized in the downstream of och1 and inserted to the och1 site of P. pastoris genome, where the upstream and downstream of och1 were duplicated. In the second recombinant, the duplicated fragments of och1 were exchanged and the och1 deletion strains were selected on the plates containing 5-FOA, but no adenine. Then the och1 deletion strain was applied to express an human serum albumin (HSA) granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) chimera. Different with the hyperglycosylated HSA/GM-CSF chimera expressed in wild type P. pastoris, the chimera expressed in the och1 deletion strain, contained smaller N-glycan. The results suggested that the och1 mutant yeast may be more suitable for production of recombinant glycoproteins. And the och 1 deletion strain could be used for further re-engineering to produce complex human glycoproteins.
Chimera ; Gene Deletion ; Gene Knockout Techniques ; Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Mannosyltransferases ; genetics ; Pichia ; enzymology ; genetics ; metabolism ; Recombinant Fusion Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; Serum Albumin ; biosynthesis ; genetics