Convergent Synthesis of Homogeneous Glc1Man9GlcNAc2-Protein and Derivatives as Ligands of Molecular Chaperones in Protein Quality Control

A detailed understanding of the molecular mechanism of chaperone-assisted protein quality control is often hampered by the lack of well-defined homogeneous glycoprotein probes. We describe here a highly convergent chemoenzymatic synthesis of the monoglucosylated glycoforms of bovine ribonuclease (RNase) as specific ligands of lectin-like chaperones calnexin (CNX) and calreticulin (CRT) that are known to recognize the monoglucosylated high-mannose oligosaccharide component of glycoproteins in protein folding. The synthesis of a selectively modified glycoform Gal1Glc1Man9GlcNAc2-RNase was accomplished by chemical synthesis of a large N-glycan oxazoline and its subsequent enzymatic ligation to GlcNAc-RNase under the catalysis of a glycosynthase. Selective removal of the terminal galactose by a β-galactosidase gave the Glc1Man9GlcNAc2-RNase glycoform in excellent yield. CD spectroscopic analysis and RNA-hydrolyzing assay indicated that the synthetic RNase glycoforms maintained essentially the same global conf...