Common Origin and Evolution of Glycosyltransferases Using Dol-P-monosaccharides as Donor Substrate

Rafael Oriol, Ivan Martinez-Duncker, Isabelle Chantret, Rosella Mollicone and Patrice Codogno

INSERM U504, University of Paris Sud XI, Villejuif, France


    Abstract
 TOP
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results and Discussion
 Acknowledgements
 References
 
On the basis of the analysis of 64 glycosyltransferases from 14 species we propose that several successive duplications of a common ancestral gene, followed by divergent evolution, have generated the mannosyltransferases and the glucosyltransferases involved in asparagine-linked glycosylation (ALG) and phosphatidyl-inositol glycan anchor (PIG or GPI), which use lipid-related donor and acceptor substrates. Long and short conserved peptide motifs were found in all enzymes. Conserved and identical amino acid positions were found for the {alpha}2/6- and the {alpha}3/4-mannosyltransferases and for the {alpha}2/3-glucosyltransferases, suggesting unique ancestors for these three superfamilies. The three members of the {alpha}2-mannosyltransferase family (ALG9, PIG-B, and SMP3) and the two members of the {alpha}3-glucosyltransferase family (ALG6 and ALG8) shared 11 and 30 identical amino acid positions, respectively, suggesting that these enzymes have also originated by duplication and divergent evolution. This model predicts a common genetic origin for ALG and PIG enzymes using dolichyl-phospho-monosaccharide (Dol-P-monosaccharide) donors, which might be related to similar spatial orientation of the hydroxyl acceptors. On the basis of the multiple sequence analysis and the prediction of transmembrane topology we propose that the endoplasmic reticulum glycosyltransferases using Dol-P-monosaccharides as donor substrate have a multispan transmembrane topology with a first large luminal conserved loop containing the long motif and a small cytosolic conserved loop containing the short motif, different from the classical type II glycosyltransferases, which are anchored in the Golgi by a single transmembrane domain.


    Introduction
 TOP
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results and Discussion
 Acknowledgements
 References
 
Asparagine-linked glycans (N-glycans) are engaged in a large panel of cellular and tissular functions (Varki 1993Citation ). They are involved in (1) quality control of proteins synthesized in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) (Helenius and Aebi 2001Citation ), (2) intracellular trafficking of some glycoproteins along the secretory pathway (Hauri et al. 2000Citation ), (3) lysosomal delivery of acid hydrolases (Kornfeld 1990Citation ), (4) membrane targeting of some proteins in polarized cells (Scheiffele, Peränen, and Simons 1995Citation ), and (5) they act as recognition signals at the cell surface and participate in morphogenesis and development (Takahashi, Honda, and Nishikawa 2000Citation ).

The process of N-glycosylation starts in the cytosolic face of the ER by the successive assembly of two N-acetylglucosamines and five mannoses on the lipid carrier dolichylpyrophosphate. Then the lipid-linked heptasaccharide is translocated across the membrane to the lumen of the ER by the RFT1 flippase (Helenius et al. 2002Citation ), where consecutive additions of four residues of mannose and three glucose residues complete the oligosaccharide, which is in turn transferred en bloc from the dolichol carrier to asparagine, in the sequence Asn-X-Ser/Thr of the nascent protein chain. The N-glycosylation process is completed by a series of trimming and processing reactions ending in the late Golgi compartment (Kornfeld and Kornfeld 1985Citation ; Burda and Aebi 1999Citation ).

The assembly of the initial heptasaccharide on the cytosolic face of the ER is carried out by glycosyltransferases using UDP-GlcNAc or GDP-Man as donor substrates, whereas the sequential addition in the ER lumen of the following four mannoses and three glucoses is carried out by glycosyltransferases using Dol-P-Man and Dol-P-Glc as donor substrates (fig. 1 ). These last two donor substrates are synthesized in the cytosol from GDP-Man and UDP-Glc. The existence of specific flippases able to transport the dolichol-based donor substrates from the cytosol to the luminal side of the membrane has been proposed but they have not yet been identified (Schenk, Fernandez, and Waechter 2001Citation ), and it is possible that more than one protein contributes to these flippase activities (Anand et al. 2001Citation ).



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Fig. 1.—Comparative structures of the oligosaccharides of ALG and PIG series. Empty symbols of ALG represent the initial heptasaccharide (GlcNAc2Man5) assembled in the cytosol by the glycosyltransferases using nucleotide-sugar donor substrates. Solid symbols of the ALG and PIG series are Man and Glc units added by the glycosyltransferases using Dol-P-monosaccharides as donor substrates in the lumen of the ER. The numbers inside the symbols indicate the order of sequential addition of the cytosolic GlcNAc (1–2), the cytosolic Man (1–5), the luminal Man (6–9) and the luminal Glc (1–3) of ALG, and the luminal Man (1–4) of PIG. The dashed line represents the {alpha}-linkage made by PIG-M, between the OH of C1 in the first mannose of PIG and the OH of C4 in glucosamine. This linkage has an equatorial orientation similar to that of the {alpha}1->3 linkage made by ALG3 (fig. 9 ). Enzymes not cloned are represented by a question mark. The same ALG9 enzyme is supposed to make both branches of N-glycans, but a different ALG9-like enzyme may exist.

 
The phosphatidyl-inositol glycan anchor (PIG or GPI) is a posttranslational modification frequently observed in proteins expressed in the plasma membrane (Cole and Hart 1997Citation ). GPI is synthesized in the ER membrane, where it substitutes the C-terminus of some newly synthesized proteins. The four mannoses of the PIG anchor are also added in the ER (Maeda et al. 2001Citation ). The first mannose is added by PIG-M which is an {alpha}4-mannosyltransferase, the second mannose is added by an {alpha}6-mannosyltransferase which has not yet been cloned, and the third and fourth mannoses are added by the PIG-B and SMP3 {alpha}2-mannosyltransferases, respectively. These four enzymes use the same Dol-P-Man donor substrate and make linkages similar to those of the corresponding asparagine-linked glycosylation (ALG) mannosyltransferases of the N-glycan series (fig. 1 ). In spite of these functional similarities, the ALG and PIG mannosyltransferases have always been considered separately, and no attempts had been made, in the past, to find a common evolutionary path for these two series of enzymes.

The aims of this work were (1) to find conserved peptide motifs, potential candidates for interaction with acceptor or donor substrates, (2) to find eventual relations between ALG and PIG mannosyltransferases using the same donor substrate, and (3) to see if some common characters of these enzymes could be related to structural features of the linkage to the acceptor substrates and if these could help to understand their evolutionary path.


    Materials and Methods
 TOP
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results and Discussion
 Acknowledgements
 References
 
Nomenclature
We consider that the glycosyltransferases which use the same donor and acceptor substrates and make the same sugar linkage (i.e., {alpha}2-, {alpha}3-, {alpha}4- or {alpha}6-mannosyltransferases and {alpha}2- or {alpha}3-glucosyltransferases) belong to the same family and that families sharing common peptide motifs, identical amino acid positions, and similar transmembrane domain (TMD) topology can be clustered in superfamilies (i.e., {alpha}2/6-mannosyltransferases, {alpha}3/4-mannosyltransferases, or {alpha}2/3-glucosyltransferases).

Sequence Retrieval
Saccharomyces cerevisiae or human (or both) DNA and protein glycosyltransferase sequences were retrieved from the literature. Orthologous protein sequences from other species were first searched with gapped-BLAST. The cloning of human ALG12 (AJ303120) has been reported by Chantret et al. (2002)Citation . The human EST databank was searched with rat alg10 and with S. cerevisiae rft1 (U15087). Contigs were built for both series of human ESTs by alignment with HUCAP (Huang 1992Citation ). Primers were designed in the EST contigs (sense 5'-CAGGAGTAGGTTCTTGGGCAGTGGC-3' and antisense 5'-AATGTAATTTGAAGACCACCACTGCACC-3' for ALG10, and sense 5'-GGCATTTCCTGGTGTCTGAGCCTG-3' and antisense 5'-CACAGAACTACCCATAGCTGGTCC-3' for RFT1). The corresponding human 1,582-bp ALG10 (AJ312278) and 1,761-bp RFT1 (AJ318099) cDNA sequences were amplified from an expression library (Cailleau-Thomas et al. 2000Citation ), and they were cloned in a PCR3.1 expression vector (Eukaryotic TA cloning kit from Invitrogen), and sequenced in both strands by the dideoxy chain termination method with the T7 DNA polymerase (kit Amersham-Pharmacia-Biotech) and submitted to EMBL. The cDNA sequences of the coding sequences of Mus musculus alg12, Drosophila melanogaster alg10 and Caenorhabditis elegans pig-B were deduced from HUCAP alignments made with more than two concordant EST overlaps per position.

Conserved Peptide Motifs
After retrieval of all the sequences, the best-conserved peptide patterns for each family were determined with CLUSTALW 1.8 (Thomson, Higgins, and Gibson 1994Citation ) and used in a final search with the corresponding human sequence in an iterative PHI-BLAST search with default parameters, until convergence (Altschul et al. 1997Citation ). The seed expression patterns for the PHI-BLAST were: H[KQ]EXRF[ILMV][IYFLSV][YPLV] for the {alpha}2/6-mannosyltransferase superfamily; [VL]X[YF]T[DEK][IV]D[YW]X[VIAT] for the {alpha}3/4-mannosyltransferase superfamily; W[GT]LDYPP[LF][TF]A[FYW] for the {alpha}3-glucosyltransferase family; and LADNRH[YF][TL]FY for the {alpha}2-glucosyltransferase family. A combined PHI-PSI-BLAST was also used for the {alpha}2/3-glucosyltransferase superfamily with human ALG10 and the initial PHI-BLAST seed pattern: [WP]X[LI][DT][YT][PFL]PX[TFIL][AY]. Only complete sequences comprising both the long and the short conserved peptide motifs were used for this study, but the presence of numerous EST and partial sequences in other species suggests that these enzymes are widely distributed among other animals and plants and even some bacteria.

Transmembrane Domains
Helical TMDs were predicted by PHD-htm for each enzyme (table 1 Go ) (Rost, Fariselli, and Casadio 1996Citation ). This analysis gave a similar, but not identical multispan TMD structure for all individual sequences (ranging from 8–14 TMDs, table 1 ). Then, because the best computer-assisted TMD prediction methods have about 86% accuracy (Rost, Fariselli, and Casadio 1996Citation ), we searched for consensus TMD topologies. Individual TMDs predicted by PHD-htm were added to each species sequence on the CLUSTALW alignments for each enzyme, and TMDs detected at marginal significance were added or deleted, when needed, to get the best overall consensus TMD fit with the other species. Helical segments of 15–24 amino acids were considered as single helical TMDs, and longer hydrophobic helical domains of more than 25 amino acids were considered as double TMDs entering and leaving the membrane from the same side. This artificial consensus TMD prediction of all species for each enzyme was drawn, and the loop invariant amino acids were added to the figures. The high stringent criteria of total identity for each individual amino acid position was selected on purpose for visualization, but the less stringent analysis based on conserved amino acid positions at 50% leads to similar conclusions. The analysis of conserved amino acid positions and the phylogeny were derived independently from the transmembrane topology.


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Table 1 ALG and PIG Mannosyltransferases and Glucosyltransferases Using Dol-P-Monosaccharide as Donor Substrate (64 enzymes)

 

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Table 1 Continued

 
Phylogeny
Peptide sequences of mannosyltransferases and glucosyltransferases were aligned with CLUSTALW. Two strategies for selection of informative positions were used to make the trees: (1) selection of the two conserved peptide motifs of each sequence (fig. 2 ), followed by CLUSTALW alignment and global gap removal, which gave blocks of 43 of the original 53 sites (81%) for the 45 species of mannosyltransferases and 48 of the 57 original sites (84%) for the 17 species of glucosyltransferases; and (2) computer selection of conserved blocks with GBLOCKS (Castresana 2000Citation ) with parameters adjusted for maximum block retrieval in the CLUSTALW alignments of each of the three superfamilies, which gave 106 sites (9% of the original 1,132) for the 28 species of the {alpha}2/6-mannosyltransferase superfamily, 150 sites (25% of the original 616) for the 17 species of the {alpha}3/4-mannosyltransferase superfamily, and 137 sites (20% of the original 668) for the 17 species of the {alpha}2/3-glucosyltransferase superfamily. Both selection methods gave trees with similar topology, showing that the additional sites recruited by GBLOCKS do not bias the phylogeny. Distance matrices were generated with the observed difference of the neighbor-joining method from the PHYLO_WIN package (Galtier, Gouy, and Gautier 1996Citation ). The sequence of alg8 of C. elegans, which has a frameshift and lacks the short motif, and the sequence of alg10 of A. thaliana, which lacks half of the short motif, were excluded from the phylogeny study. Five hundred sets of data were used for bootstrap calculations.



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Fig. 2.—Long and short conserved peptide motifs of the {alpha}2/6-mannosyltransferase superfamily (A) the {alpha}3/4-mannosyltransferase superfamily (B), and the {alpha}2/3-glucosyltransferase superfamily (C). Black letters on a gray background correspond to amino acid positions conserved at 50% in one enzyme, and white letters on a black background are positions conserved at 50% in two or more enzymes. The size, the relative positions of the long and the short conserved motifs, and the inter motif distance < > are well conserved. For the evaluation of conserved amino acid positions, ST, KR, DENQ, VILM, and WFY were considered equivalent

 

    Results and Discussion
 TOP
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results and Discussion
 Acknowledgements
 References
 
Conserved Peptide Motifs
We found two highly conserved peptide motifs in each of the mannosyltransferases and glucosyltransferases, by protein sequence alignment with CLUSTALW. The long motif (41–44 amino acids) is located close to the amino terminus and the short motif (9–10 amino acids) is located in the carboxy terminal side of the enzymes. The distance between these two motifs is relatively well conserved in the three superfamilies (median 252, range 215–381) (fig. 2A–C ).

The {alpha}2- and {alpha}6-Mannosyltransferase Superfamily Using Dol-P-Man as Donor Substrate
The {alpha}6-mannosyltransferases (ALG12) (Burda et al. 1999Citation ) are clustered in the same glycosyltransferase-22 family of the Carbohydrate Active enZyme database (CAZy) (http://afmb.cnrs-mrs.fr/~pedro/CAZY/db.html) together with three {alpha}2-mannosyltransferases, one belonging to the same asparagine-linked glycosylation series (ALG9) and two enzymes involved in the synthesis of the PIG anchor (PIG-B and SMP3) (Ferguson 1992Citation ). These four enzymes were known to have a short common peptide pattern: H[KQ]EXRF (Canivenc-Gansel et al. 1998Citation ), which is part of the short conserved peptide motif shown in figure 2A . After five iterative runs with the human ALG12 protein sequence, the PHI-BLAST converges and retrieves the 28 enzymes of the {alpha}2/6-mannosyltransferase superfamily, including all the ALG12, ALG9, PIG-B, and SMP3 enzymes (table 1 ).

The alignment of the sequences of the homologous ALG12 enzymes from four different species (S. cerevisiae, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, D. melanogaster, and C. elegans) showed another highly conserved peptide pattern (TKVEESF) in the long conserved peptide motif of ALG12 (fig. 2A ), which helped us to clone the mouse and the human ALG12 genes. Unlike the short motif, which is highly conserved in the four enzymes of this superfamily, the long motif has few positions conserved in all four families, but it has a large proportion of amino acid positions conserved among the {alpha}6-mannosyltransferases on one side and among the three {alpha}2-mannosyltransferase families on the other side, suggesting the existence of two conserved long peptide motifs, one specific for the {alpha}6-mannosyltransferases (ALG12) and another specific for the {alpha}2-mannosyltransferases (ALG9, PIG-B and SMP3) (fig. 2A ). The phylogenetic tree of all mannosyltransferases supports the idea that the three {alpha}2-mannosyltransferases have a common genetic origin and are more closely related among themselves than to the {alpha}6-mannosyltransferase family (fig. 3 ).



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Fig. 3.—Neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree of mannosyltransferases (based on the 43 selected sites of the long and the short motifs). ALG12 are {alpha}6-mannosyltransferases. ALG9, PIG-B and SMP3 are {alpha}2-mannosyltransferases ({alpha}2-mt). ALG3 are {alpha}3-mannosyltransferases and PIG-M are {alpha}4-mannosyltransferases. Bootstrap values from 500 data sets are indicated at the divergence points. The scale bar represents the number of substitutions per site for a unit branch length.

 
The enzymes of this {alpha}2/6-mannosyltransferase superfamily have a consensus multispan TMD structure with an average of 12 spans. The long motif is flanked by TMD-1 and TMD-2, whereas the short motif is flanked by TMD-10 and TMD-11 (fig. 4 ). PIG-B (Takahashi et al. 1996Citation ) and ALG9 (Burda et al. 1996Citation ) glycosyltransferases add an {alpha}2-mannose to a sterically similar mannose acceptor (fig. 1 ), and they share eleven identical amino acid positions (solid and gray circles in fig. 4 ). Three of the eight ALG9 and three of the ten PIG-B enzymes have an ER retention signal (table 1 ) (Teasdale and Jackson 1996Citation ), suggesting that their COOH terminus is in the cytosol. The SMP3 enzymes make a further elongation of a fourth mannose (Grimme et al. 2001Citation ) also linked in {alpha}1->2 in PIG (fig. 1 ). They share the same eleven identical amino acids with the two other {alpha}2-mannosyltransferases (fig. 4 ), but none of the four known SMP3 enzymes has ER retention signals (table 1 ).



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Fig. 4.—Consensus TMD topology of the {alpha}6-mannosyltransferases (six ALG12) and the {alpha}2-mannosyltransferases (eighth ALG9, ten PIG-B, and four SMP3). Vertical empty rectangles are helical TMDs across the ER membrane bilayer (gray horizontal band). Empty circles with black letters are identical amino acid positions in all members within each of the four series of enzymes. Gray solid circles with black letters represent the four identical amino acids in the three enzymes of the {alpha}2-mannosyltransferase family, and solid circles with white letters are the seven amino acids identical in the four series of enzymes constituting the {alpha}2/6-mannosyltransferase superfamily. The boxed KK represents a putative ER retention signal (table 1 ). The solid star in TMD-4 of ALG12 identifies the inactivating mutation F142->V (AJ290427) of human ALG12, inducing the CDG of type Ig (Chantret et al. 2002Citation ). C, cytosol; L, lumen of the ER.

 
It is interesting to note that a large proportion of the conserved amino acids in the {alpha}2-mannosyltransferases are located in the long loop between the first two TMDs, where we found the ALG12-specific highly conserved pattern (TKVEESF). In addition, the four identical amino acids, which are specific of the {alpha}2-mannosyltransferase activity (gray circles in fig. 4 ), are also in this first loop, suggesting that it might be involved in {alpha}2- and {alpha}6-mannosyltransferase active sites.

Seven of the eleven amino acids, identical among {alpha}2-mannosyltransferases, are also shared by the {alpha}6-mannosyltransferases (solid circles, fig. 4 ). This might be related to the fact that the hydroxyl groups on C2 and C6 of the {alpha}-D-mannose acceptor are on the same side of the molecule, and they may offer some similarities of acceptor surface to the corresponding {alpha}2- and {alpha}6-mannosyltransferases (fig. 5 ), although they are not very close in space. We have previously found a similar phenomenon between {alpha}2-fucosyltransferases and {alpha}6-fucosyltransferases which share three conserved peptide motifs (Breton, Oriol, and Imberty 1998Citation ; Chazalet et al. 2001Citation ). In addition, conserved peptide motifs were also found between {alpha}3-fucosyltransferases and {alpha}4-fucosyltransferases (Oriol et al. 1999Citation ). This last observation prompted us to ascertain whether the {alpha}3- and the {alpha}4-mannosyltransferases using Dol-P-Man as donor substrate have also conserved common peptide motifs.



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Fig. 5.—Structure of the {alpha}-D-mannose acceptor for: {alpha}6-mannosyltransferases (ALG12), {alpha}2-mannosyltransferases (ALG9, PIG-B, and SMP3), and {alpha}3-mannosyltransferases (ALG3). The empty ovals contain the OH on C2 and C6 of the mannose acceptor (top). Structure of the {alpha}-D-glucosamine acceptor for the {alpha}4-mannosyltransferase (PIG-M) (bottom). The two oval shaded symbols represent the OH on C3 of the mannose (top) and on C4 of the glucosamine (bottom). Both the 2 and the 6 positions of the mannose are on the upper side (empty ovals) and both the 3 and the 4 positions are on the equatorial left side of the mannose and the glucosamine (shaded ovals)

 
The {alpha}3- and {alpha}4-Mannosyltransferase Superfamily Using Dol-P-Man as Donor Substrate
After three iterative runs with the corresponding pattern and either of the human ALG3 (CAZy glycosyltransferase-58 family) or PIG-M (CAZy glycosyltransferase-50 family), the PHI-BLAST reaches convergence and retrieves the 17 enzymes of the {alpha}3/4-mannosyltransferase superfamily (table 1 ). Several conserved amino acid positions were found for both the long and the short motifs of the {alpha}3/4-mannosyltransferase superfamily (fig. 2B ). The phylogenetic tree of all mannosyltransferases show that the ALG3 family and the PIG-M family constitute separate clusters (fig. 3 ) and are different enough from the cluster of {alpha}2/6-mannosyltransferases to be considered as an outgroup defining the position of a possible root for the tree between the two superfamilies of {alpha}2/6- and {alpha}3/4-mannosyl-transferases.

The TMD prediction also suggests a multispan structure with an average of 12 spans, with the long motif in the first loop and the short motif between TMD-10 and TMD-11 (fig. 6 ). Seven identical amino acid positions are shared by the {alpha}3- and the {alpha}4-mannosyltransferases (solid circles in fig. 6 ). Five of these seven identical positions are in the first large luminal loop, which is equivalent to the first loop of the {alpha}2/6-mannosyltransferase superfamily, suggesting again that this first luminal loop is particularly well conserved and may play a role in the active site of the enzymes and that there are some similarities between the consensus TMD topology of the two superfamilies of {alpha}2/6-mannosyltransferases and {alpha}3/4-mannosyltransferases. In addition, the presence of a small conserved loop, in the cytosolic side of the membrane, between TMD-10 and TMD-11 of {alpha}3- and {alpha}4-mannosyltransferases, supports the idea of conserved TMD topology between {alpha}2/6-mannosyltransferases (fig. 4 ) and {alpha}3/4-mannosyltransferases (fig. 6 ). Six of the eight {alpha}3-mannosyltransferases (ALG3) and five of the nine {alpha}4-mannosyltransferases (PIG-M) have an ER retention signal (table 1 ), in good agreement with the consensus TMD topology prediction (fig. 6 ), which suggests that both NH2 and COOH terminus are cytosolic. PIG-M belongs to the PIG-anchor and ALG3 to the N-glycan series, suggesting that these two series of enzymes have also a common genetic origin.



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Fig. 6.—Consensus TMD topology of the {alpha}4-mannosyltransferases (nine PIG-M, top) and the {alpha}3-mannosyltransferases (eighth ALG3, bottom). Empty circles with black letters indicate the identical amino acids among all members of each of the two families of enzymes. Solid circles with white letters represent the seven amino acids identical in the two enzymes of the {alpha}3/4-mannosyltransferase superfamily. The boxed KK indicates a putative ER retention signal (table 1 ). The solid star in the second loop of ALG3 represents the inactivating mutation G118->N of the human ALG3 enzyme inducing the CDG of type Id (Körner et al. 1999Citation ; Sharma, Knauer, and Lehle 2001Citation ). C, cytosol; L, lumen of the ER.

 
The hydroxyls on C3 of the {alpha}-D-mannose and C4 of the {alpha}-D-glucosamine acceptors have the same equatorial orientation and offer a similar equatorial approach to the corresponding {alpha}3-mannosyltransferases (ALG3) and {alpha}4-mannosyltransferases (PIG-M), especially if the glucosamine is rotated 180° around its horizontal axis (fig. 5 ). Consequently, we expected more common features between {alpha}3- and {alpha}4-mannosyltransferases, which share the same equatorial approach to the acceptor and the same donor and less common features between the two superfamilies of {alpha}2/6- and {alpha}3/4-mannosyltransferases because they only share the donor substrate (Dol-P-Man).

The {alpha}2 and {alpha}3-Glucosyltransferase Superfamily Using Dol-P-Glc as Donor Substrate
After two iterative runs, the PHI-BLAST with either of human ALG6 or ALG8 converges and retrieves the 12 sequences of the {alpha}3-glucosyltransferase family, comprising the ALG6 and the ALG8 enzymes. These two enzymes are closely related as shown in the phylogenetic tree of figure 7 . Their close similarity is also illustrated by 30 identical amino acid positions among ALG6 and ALG8 (fig. 8 ). Four out of the six ALG6 and two out of the six ALG8 enzymes (Stagljar, Hessen, and Aebi 1994Citation ; Stanchi et al. 2001Citation ) have a putative ER retention signal (table 1 ), suggesting that their COOH-end is in the cytosol, as predicted by the consensus TMD topology (fig. 8 ).



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Fig. 7.—Neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree of glucosyltransferases (based on the 160 computer selected sites with GBLOCKS). ALG6 and ALG8 are {alpha}3-glucosyltransferases and ALG10 are {alpha}2-glucosyltransferases ({alpha}2-glu-tr). Bootstrap values from 500 data sets are indicated at the divergence points. The scale bar represents the number of substitutions per site for a unit branch length.

 


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Fig. 8.—Consensus TMD topology of the {alpha}3-glucosyltransferases (six ALG6 and five ALG8) and the {alpha}2-glucosyltransferases (six ALG10), constituting the {alpha}2/3-glucosyltransferase superfamily. Empty circles with black letters indicate identical amino acid positions among all members within each of the three enzymes. Gray solid circles with black letters represent 27 amino acids identical in both {alpha}3-glucosyltransferases (ALG6 and ALG8), and solid circles with white letters are the five ALG10 identical amino acids with ALG6 or ALG8 (or both). The solid stars identify inactivating mutations in human ALG6: S170->I, TMD-4 (de Lonlay et al. 2001Citation ); deletion of I 299, TMD-7 (Hanefeld et al. 2000Citation ); F304->S, TMD-7 (Imbach et al. 2000Citation ); A333->V, TMD-8 (Imbach et al. 1999Citation ); deletion of L 444, TMD-11 (de Lonlay et al. 2001Citation ); and S478->P, TMD-12 (Imbach et al. 2000Citation ), which can induce the CDG of type Ic (Grünewald et al. 2000Citation ). C, cytosol; L, lumen of the ER.

 
Either of PHI-BLAST or PSI-BLAST alone with ALG10 retrieved only the ALG10 enzymes of the different species, but the combined PHI-PSI-BLAST with human ALG10 retrieves ALG10, ALG8, and ALG6 enzymes of the {alpha}2/3-glucosyltransferase superfamily. Few similarities exist between ALG10 and the {alpha}3-glucosyltransferases, but the short and long motifs are well identified, among all the different species for ALG10 (gray and black areas of the ALG10 family in fig. 2C ). The phylogenetic tree confirms this impression, showing a cluster of ALG10 enzymes at high distance from the two {alpha}3-glucosyltransferases, ALG6 and ALG8 (fig. 7 ). The alg10 gene was first described in yeast (Burda and Aebi 1998Citation ), then in rat (Hoshi et al. 1998Citation ), and we have cloned the Drosophila (AJ431376) and the human (AJ312278) ALG10 orthologous genes. None of the ALG10 enzymes has ER retention signals, but all of them have three identical amino acid positions with ALG6 and ALG8, plus a glutamic acid (E) identical with ALG6 in the long motif, and a histidine (H) identical with ALG8 in the short motif (solid circles fig. 8 ).

The transmembrane topology of the last three glucosyltransferases suggests a consensus TMD organization similar to the aforementioned TMD structure of mannosyltransferases with about 12 TMD. A large conserved luminal loop between TMD-1 and TMD-2 and a small conserved loop, in the cytosolic side of the membrane, between TMD-8 and TMD-9 are present (fig. 8 ).

The scheme of figure 9 illustrates identical equatorial orientations of the hydroxyls on C3 of the last {alpha}-D-mannose and the first {alpha}-D-glucose, which are acceptors for ALG6 and ALG8, respectively. Unlike this, a different spatial orientation can be seen for the hydroxyl on C2 of the second {alpha}-D-glucose, which is the acceptor substrate for ALG10. Therefore, we expect more common features between ALG6 and ALG8, which share both acceptor and donor substrates, than between the {alpha}2-glucosyltransferase (ALG10) and the two {alpha}3-glucosyltransferases (ALG6 and ALG8) because they have different acceptor substrates and they only share the donor substrate (Dol-P-Glc). Comparison of the OH on C3 (acceptors for ALG6 and ALG8) and the OH on C2 (acceptor for ALG10, fig. 9 ) with the OH on C3, C4, C2, and C6 (acceptors for mannosyltransferases, fig. 5 ), suggests that the acceptor OH of the two families of glucosyltransferases are as different from each other as the corresponding acceptors for the two mannosyltransferase superfamilies.



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Fig. 9.—Structure of the {alpha}-D-mannose (top), acceptor for the first glucose (added by ALG6). The first {alpha}-D-glucose (bottom), acceptor for the second glucose (added by ALG8) or the second {alpha}-D-glucose, acceptor for the third glucose (added by ALG10). The shaded oval areas correspond to the OH on C3 of the mannose and the first glucose. The empty oval area shows the OH on C2 of the second glucose. Identical equatorial orientation is illustrated by the two shaded areas, in spite of being on different monosaccharides (mannose and glucose), whereas different orientations are shown by the two oval shaded areas on the left side and the oval empty area below the glucose.

 
Potential Functions of TMD and Conserved Loops
The transmembrane topology of the glycosyltransferases, using Dol-P-monosaccharides as donor substrate, suggests a common consensus multispan transmembrane topology. The enzymes have an average of 12 putative helical TMD, and both the NH2 and COOH-ends are in the cytosolic side of the membrane (figs. 4 , 6 , and 8 ). But they still are a statistical prediction, and we cannot be certain that all the putative TMDs span the membrane in vivo, for example only 7 of the 11 TMDs predicted for the protein O-mannosyltransferase (Pmt1p) were shown to span the membrane (Straahl-Bolsinger and Scheinost 1999Citation ). However, if some of the putative {alpha}-helical TMDs do not span the membrane, the second most probable topology with both extremes in the cytosol would be a 10 TMD, and if there is an odd number of TMD, the NH2 and the COOH terminus would be on different sides of the membrane. None of these possibilities can be formally ruled out for individual sequences because the consensus topology is only an average artificial prediction. Nevertheless, we can say that all these enzymes have a multispan TMD topology, similar to the general structure of sugar transport proteins such as glucose-6-P-transporter (G6PT) (Pan, Lin, and Chou 1999Citation ) or glucose transporter 1 (Glut1) (Sato and Mueckler 1999Citation ). In fact, the great majority of sugar transporters have a multispan structure with 10 or 12 TMDs (Maiden et al. 1987Citation ; Marger and Saier 1993Citation ). It is possible that each of the enzymes under study contributes also to the translocation across the membrane of the Dol-P-monosaccharide, which is synthesized in the cytosol and has to reach the acceptor substrate oligosaccharides in the lumen of the ER (Rush and Waechter 1998Citation ; Rush et al. 1998Citation ).

A similar distribution of the putative TMD along the peptide chain is an additional structural feature in favor of a common genetic origin for a series of related enzymes. Our consensus TMD topology suggests that the first, large and highly conserved loop, is on the luminal side of the membrane and contains identical amino acid positions specific for each linkage. These properties are compatible with the contribution of this first loop to the glycosyltransferase active site.

For the sake of clarity, only identical amino acid positions located in the extramembrane loops are shown in figures 4 , 6 , and 8 , but between 30% and 42% of the total amino acids of these enzymes is located inside the putative helical TMD. The comparative analysis of identical amino acid positions in the loops and in the helical TMD shows that they are not randomly distributed. In general, there are fewer identical amino acid positions inside the TMD (8%–35%) than in the loops (65%–92%), and the proportion of identical amino acids in TMDs are characteristic and different for the {alpha}2/6-mannosyltransferase (8%–19%), the {alpha}3/4-mannosyltransferase (21%–27%) and the {alpha}2/3-glucosyltransferase (35%), in favor of a common origin for each of these three superfamilies of glycosyltransferases.

The mutations of these ER glycosyltransferases, known to be responsible of congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG), are also not randomly distributed. Only one out of eight mutations is in a short loop and seven are in TMDs (solid stars in figs. 4 , 6 , and 8 ). A similar difference in favor of a TMD location has been reported for the mutations inactivating the Golgi transporter of CMP-sialic acid (Eckhardt, Gotza, and Gerardy-Schahn 1999Citation ), and this protein is also a candidate for establishing a new CDG of type II (Mollicone et al., personal communication).

Divergent Evolutionary Model
All together the common structural features of the enzymes using Dol-P-monosaccharides as donor substrate suggest that they might have followed a common evolutionary path. The duplication of a hypothetical ancestral gene, encoding for a protein with the long and short conserved peptide motifs and the consensus multispan TMD topology, followed by divergent evolution, might have generated the two main mannosyltransferase and glucosyltransferase genes (fig. 10 ). A second duplication within the mannosyltransferases might have originated the {alpha}2/6- and the {alpha}3/4-mannosyltransferase superfamilies. A duplication of the {alpha}2/6-mannosyltransferase gene may be at the origin of the {alpha}6-mannosyltransferase genes (ALG12) and the ancestor of the {alpha}2-mannosyltransferase genes. Two further duplications of the {alpha}2-mannosyltransferase branch may be at the origin of SMP3, PIG-B, and ALG9 genes. A duplication of the gene of the {alpha}3/4-mannosyltransferase superfamily may have originated ALG3 and PIG-M genes. Similar duplication events may have originated the {alpha}2-glucosyltransferase genes (ALG10) and the ancestor of {alpha}3-glucosyltransferase genes in the glucosyltransferase branch. Finally, a last and more recent duplication must be at the origin of the present two enzymes with {alpha}3-glucosyltransferase activity (ALG6 and ALG8) because they display the highest score of sequence identity (30 amino acids, fig. 8 ).



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Fig. 10.—Divergent evolutionary model, based on the consensus TMD topology (figs. 4 , 6 , and 8 ), phylogeny (figs. 3 and 7 ), and conserved peptide motifs (fig. 2 ) of all the glycosyltransferases using Dol-P-monosaccharides as donor substrate. The model indicates the duplication events needed to obtain the six {alpha}-mannosyltransferase genes (ALG12, ALG9, PIG-B, SMP3, ALG3, and PIG-M) and the three {alpha}-glucosyltransferase genes (ALG6, ALG8, and ALG10) from a hypothetical common ancestral gene having the consensus multispan TMD topology. The three superfamilies of {alpha}2/6-mannosyltransferases (solid circles), {alpha}3/4-mannosyltransferases (dark gray circles), and {alpha}2/3-glucosyltransferase (light gray circles) are supported by the existence of an increasing number of identical and conserved amino acids, at each divergence point, from left to right, and a conserved proportion of identical amino acids in TMD, within each of the three enzyme superfamilies. The empty circles represent hypothetical ancestors based on the similar size and location of the conserved peptide motifs, the multispan TMD topology, and their common use of Dol-P-monosaccharides as donor substrates. This model suggests that the glycosyltransferases of the N-glycan series (ALG) and of the PIG anchor series (PIG-B, PIG-M, and SMP3), using Dol-P-monosaccharides as donor substrates, have a common genetic origin.

 
The compilation of the data reported previously and the identical and conserved amino acid positions in each of the superfamilies, families, and enzymes, constitute indirect evidence for a common genetic origin followed by divergent evolution of these enzymes. The existence of the more ancestral precursor genes (the two empty circles in fig. 10 ) is supported by the relative positions and sizes of the long and the short conserved peptide motifs, but no identical or conserved amino acid positions were found between mannosyltransferases and glucosyltransferases, nor between the {alpha}2/6 and the {alpha}3/4-superfamilies of mannosyltransferases. The relative positions of the duplications reflect the increasing proportion of identical and conserved amino acids from left to right. All the enzymes on the right side of the tree have been cloned and experimentally tested, whereas the existence of a single common ancestor on the left is only a working hypothesis. However, if the single common ancestor hypothesis is not confirmed, a very similar evolutionary model with two non-related ancestors, one for the {alpha}-mannosyltransferases and another for the {alpha}-glucosyltransferases, or three ancestors, one for each superfamily, can be imagined. Irrespective of considering one, two, or three ancestors, the tree depicted in figure 10 must be quite ancient because these nine glycosyltranferases have been found in plants, yeasts, worms, insects, and vertebrates.


    Acknowledgements
 TOP
 Abstract
 Introduction
 Materials and Methods
 Results and Discussion
 Acknowledgements
 References
 
The research was partially supported by the Association for Research on Cancer (ARC) grant 5348, the French network for Recombinant Glycosyltransferases (GT-rec), and the French INSERM/AFM network 4MR29F for CDG. We are grateful to Stuart E. H. Moore for critical reading of the manuscript and helpful discussions.


    Footnotes
 
Pierre Capy, Reviewing Editor

Abbreviations: ALG, Asparagine-Linked Glycosylation; CAZy, Carbohydrate Active enZyme database; CDG, Congenital Disorder of Glycosylation; Dol, dolichol; ER, endoplasmic reticulum; Man, mannose; Glc, glucose; GlcNAc, N-acetylglucosamine; PIG, Phosphatidyl-Inositol Glycan anchor (GPI-anchor); TMD, transmembrane domain. Back

Keywords: glucosyltransferase GPI-anchor mannosyltransferase N-glycan transmembrane topology phylogeny Back

Address for correspondence and reprints: Rafael Oriol, INSERM U504, University of Paris Sud XI, 16 Avenue Paul Vaillant-Couturier, 94807 Villejuif Cedex, France. E-mail: oriol{at}infobiogen.fr Back


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Accepted for publication April 17, 2002.