Analysis of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry: an update for 2007-2008

This review is the fifth update of the original review, published in 1999, on the application of MALDI mass spectrometry to the analysis of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates and brings coverage of the literature to the end of 2008. The first section of the review covers fundamental studies, fragmentation of carbohydrate ions, use of derivatives and new software developments for analysis of carbohydrate spectra. Among newer areas of method development are glycan arrays, MALDI imaging and the use of ion mobility spectrometry. The second section of the review discusses applications of MALDI MS to the analysis of different types of carbohydrate. Specific compound classes that are covered include carbohydrate polymers from plants, N- and O-linked glycans from glycoproteins, biopharmaceuticals, glycated proteins, glycolipids, glycosides and various other natural products. There is a short section on the use of MALDI mass spectrometry for the study of enzymes involved in glycan processing and a section on the use of MALDI MS to monitor products of the chemical synthesis of carbohydrates with emphasis on carbohydrate-protein complexes and glycodendrimers. Corresponding analyses by electrospray ionization now appear to outnumber those performed by MALDI and the amount of literature makes a comprehensive review on this technique impractical. However, most of the work relating to sample preparation and glycan synthesis is equally relevant to electrospray and, consequently, those proposing analyses by electrospray should also find material in this review of interest.

Isoform-specific O-glycosylation of osteopontin and bone sialoprotein by polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase-1

Mucin-type O-glycan biosynthesis is regulated by the family of UDP-GalNAc polypeptide:N-acetylgalactosaminlytransfersases (ppGalNAcTs) that catalyzes the first step in the pathway by transferring GalNAc to Ser or Thr residues in a protein from the sugar donor UDP-GalNAc. Because not all Ser/Thr residues are glycosylated, rules must exist that signal which hydroyxamino acids acquire sugar. To date, no universal consensus signal has emerged. Therefore, strategies to deduce the subset of proteins that will be glycosylated by distinct ppGalNAcTs must be developed. Mucin-type O-glycoproteins are present abundantly in bone, where we found multiple ppGalNAcT isoforms, including ppGalNAcT-1, to be highly expressed. Thus, we compared glycoproteins expressed in wild-type and Galnt1-null mice to identify bone-associated proteins that were glycosylated in a ppGalNAcT-1-dependent manner. A reduction in the apparent molecular masses of two SIBLINGs (small integrin binding ligand N-linked glycoproteins), osteopontin (OPN) and bone sialoprotein (BSP) in the Galnt1-null mice relative to those of the wild-type was observed. Several synthetic peptides derived from OPN and BSP sequences were designed to include either known or predicted (in silico) glycosylation sites. In vitro glycosylation assays of these peptides with recombinant ppGalNAcT-1, ppGalNAcT-2, or ppGalNAcT-3 demonstrated that both SIBLINGs contained Thr/Ser residues that were preferentially glycosylated by ppGalNAcT-1. In addition, lysates prepared from wild-type, but not those from Galnt1-null derived osteoblasts, could glycosylate these peptides efficiently, suggesting that OPN and BSP contain sites that are specific for ppGalNAcT-1. Our study presents a novel and systematic approach for identification of isoform-specific substrates of the ppGalNAcT family and suggests ppGalNAcT-1 to be indispensable for O-glycosylation at specific sites of the bone glycoproteins OPN and BSP.