Title
Chemically tunable mucin chimeras assembled on living cells
Date Issued
13 October 2015
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Stanford University
Publisher(s)
National Academy of Sciences
Abstract
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 glycopolypeptides are the first synthetic analogs to our knowledge to feature the native α-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.
Start page
12574
End page
12579
Volume
112
Issue
41
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Bioquímica, Biología molecular
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84944209873
PubMed ID
Source
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
ISSN of the container
00278424
Sponsor(s)
National Institutes of Health - F32GM109600 - NIH
National Institute of General Medical Sciences - R01GM059907 - NIGMS
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus