Pikachurin interaction with dystroglycan is diminished by defective O-mannosyl glycosylation in congenital muscular dystrophy models and rescued by LARGE overexpression

Abstract Congenital muscular dystrophies (CMD) such as muscle–eye–brain disease caused by defective glycosylation of α-dystroglycan (α-DG) exhibit defective photoreceptor synaptic function. Mouse knockouts of dystroglycan and its extracellular matrix binding partner pikachurin recapitulate this phenotype. In this study, pikachurin–α-dystroglycan interactions in several mouse models of CMD were examined by pikachurin overlay experiments. The results show that hypoglycosylation of α-dystroglycan resulted in markedly reduced pikachurin–α-dystroglycan interactions. Expression of pikachurin is abolished at the outer plexiform layer of two mouse models, protein O-mannose N-acetylglucosaminyl transferase 1 (POMGnT1) knockout and Large myd mice. Overexpressing LARGE restored this interaction in POMGnT1 knockout cells. These results indicate that pikachurin interactions with α-dystroglycan and its localization at the photoreceptor ribbon synapse require normal glycosylation of α-dystroglycan.