A Highlights from MBoC Selection: Role of malectin in Glc2Man9GlcNAc2-dependent quality control of α1-antitrypsin

Malectin was first discovered as a novel endoplasmic reticulum (ER)–resident lectin from Xenopus laevis that exhibits structural similarity to bacterial glycosylhydrolases. Like other intracellular lectins involved in glycoprotein quality control, malectin is highly conserved in animals. Here results from in vitro membrane-based binding assays and frontal affinity chromatography confirm that human malectin binds specifically to Glc2Man9GlcNAc2 (G2M9) N-glycan, with a Ka of 1.97 × 105 M−1, whereas binding to Glc1Man9GlcNAc2 (G1M9), Glc3Man9GlcNAc2 (G3M9), and other N-glycans is barely detectable. Metabolic labeling and immunoprecipitation experiments demonstrate that before entering the calnexin cycle, the folding-defective human α1-antitrypsin variant null Hong Kong (ATNHK) stably associates with malectin, whereas wild-type α1-antitrypsin (AT) or N-glycan–truncated variant of ATNHK (ATNHK-Q3) dose not. Moreover, malectin overexpression dramatically inhibits the secretion of ATNHK through a mechanism that involves enhanced ER-associated protein degradation; by comparison, the secretion of AT and ATNHK-Q3 is only slightly affected by malectin overexpression. ER-stress induced by tunicamycin results in significantly elevated mRNA transcription of malectin. These observations suggest a possible role of malectin in regulating newly synthesized glycoproteins via G2M9 recognition.