Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 112, Issue 41, Pages 12574-12579Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1516127112
Keywords
mucin; polypeptide; glycoprotein; protein engineering; N-carboxyanhydride
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Funding
- Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the US Department of Energy [DE-AC02-05CH11231]
- National Institutes of Health
- University of California
- National Institute of Health [R01 GM059907]
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Mucins are a family of secreted and transmembrane glycoproteins characterized by a massive domain of dense O-glycosylation on serine and threonine residues. Mucins are intimately involved in immunity and cancer, yet elucidation of the biological roles of their glycodomains has been complicated by their massive size, domain polymorphisms, and variable glycosylation patterns. Here we developed a synthetic route to a library of compositionally defined, high-molecular weight, dual end-functionalized mucin glycodomain constructs via N-carboxyanhydride polymerization. These glycopoly-peptides are the first synthetic analogs to our knowledge to feature the native a-GalNAc linkage to serine with molecular weights similar to native mucins, solving a nearly 50-year synthetic challenge. Physical characterization of the mimics revealed insights into the structure and properties of mucins. The synthetic glycodomains were end-functionalized with an optical probe and a tetrazine moiety, which allowed site-specific bioorthogonal conjugation to an engineered membrane protein on live mammalian cells. This strategy in protein engineering will open avenues to explore the biological roles of cell surface mucins.
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