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The N-X-S/T consensus sequence is required but not sufficient for bacterial N-linked protein glycosylation.

Nita-Lazar M, Wacker M, Schegg B, Amber S, Aebi M

Institute of Microbiology, Department of Biology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, ETH Hönggerberg, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland.

In the Gram-negative bacterium Campylobacter jejuni there is a pgl (protein glycosylation) locus-dependent general N-glycosylation system of proteins. One of the proteins encoded by pgl locus, PglB, a homolog of the eukaryotic oligosaccharyltransferase component Stt3p, is proposed to function as an oligosaccharyltransferase in this prokaryotic system. The sequence requirements of the acceptor polypeptide for N-glycosylation were analyzed by reverse genetics using the reconstituted glycosylation of the model protein AcrA in Escherichia coli. As in eukaryotes, the N-X-S/T sequon is an essential but not a sufficient determinant for N-linked protein glycosylation. This conclusion was supported by the analysis of a novel C. jejuni glycoprotein, HisJ. Export of the polypeptide to the periplasm was required for glycosylation. Our data support the hypothesis that eukaryotic and bacterial N-linked protein glycosylation are homologous processes.

Published 11 March 2005 in Glycobiology, 15(4): 361-7.
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