A rationally engineered yeast pyruvyltransferase Pvg1p introduces sialylation-like properties in neo-human-type complex oligosaccharide.

Pyruvylation onto the terminus of oligosaccharide, widely seen from prokaryote to eukaryote, confers negative charges on the cell surface and seems to be functionally similar to sialylation, which is found at the end of human-type complex oligosaccharide. However, detailed molecular mechanisms underlying pyruvylation have not been clarified well. Here, we first determined the crystal structure of fission yeast pyruvyltransferase Pvg1p at a resolution of 2.46 Å. Subsequently, by combining molecular modeling with mutational analysis of active site residues, we obtained a Pvg1p mutant (Pvg1p(H168C)) that efficiently transferred pyruvyl moiety onto a human-type complex glycopeptide. The resultant pyruvylated human-type complex glycopeptide recognized similar lectins on lectin arrays as the α2,6-sialyl glycopeptides. This newly-generated pyruvylation of human-type complex oligosaccharides would provide a novel method for glyco-bioengineering.

Functional analysis of putative phosphoenolpyruvate transporters localized to the Golgi apparatus in Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

The cell surface of Schizosaccharomyces pombe is negatively charged due to the presence of pyruvylated oligosaccharides, which is important for cell-cell recognition. However, the mechanism of pyruvate supply to oligosaccharides is not clearly understood. Here, we analyzed three putative phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) transporter genes (pet1(+) , pet2(+) , and pet3(+) ) in S. pombe, identified by sequence homology search against the Arabidopsis thaliana PEP transporter AtPPT1. Schizosaccharomyces pombe strain carrying a disruption in pet1(+) (pet1Δ) or in pet2(+) (pet2Δ), but not the strain carrying a disruption in pet3(+) (pet3Δ), showed reduced pyruvate level on the cell surface. This reduction in pyruvate level was restored to the control level by expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged Pet1p and Pet2p in respective disruptants. Fluorescence microscope studies revealed that GFP-tagged Pet1p and Pet2p were localized to the Golgi apparatus. Although expression of neither AtPPT1 nor AtPPT2 suppressed the pet1Δ phenotype, that of chimeric constructs, where the N-terminal regions of AtPPT1 and AtPPT2 were replaced by the N-terminal region of Pet1p, partially suppressed the pet1Δ phenotype. Furthermore, the reduction in cell surface negative charge in pet1Δ cells was restored by incubating these cells with recombinant Pvg1p and PEP. Thus, Pet1p and Pet2p are likely involved in transporting PEP from the cytoplasm into the Golgi.

The fission yeast Pvg1p has galactose-specific pyruvyltransferase activity.

N-Glycan from the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe contains outer-chain pyruvic acid 4,6-ketal-linked galactose (PvGal). Here, we characterized a putative S. pombe pyruvyltransferase, Pvg1p, reported to be essential for biosynthesis of PvGal. When p-nitrophenyl-ß-Gal (pNP-ß-Gal) was used as a substrate, the structure of the recombinant Pvg1p product was determined to be pNP-PvGal by one- and two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy. The recombinant Pvg1p transferred pyruvyl residues from phosphoenolpyruvate specifically to ß-linked galactose.

MADS box transcription factor Mbx2/Pvg4 regulates invasive growth and flocculation by inducing gsf2+ expression in fission yeast.

The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe exhibits invasive growth and nonsexual flocculation in response to nitrogen limitation. Gsf2, a flocculin of fission yeast, is required not only for nonsexual flocculation but also for invasive growth through the recognition of galactose residues on cell surface glycoconjugates. We found that pyruvylation negatively regulates nonsexual flocculation by capping the galactose residues of N-linked galactomannan. We investigated whether pyruvylation also regulates invasive growth. The pvg4(+) gene originally was isolated as a multicopy suppressor of a pvg4 mutant defective in the pyruvylation of N-linked oligosaccharides. However, we did not detect a defect in cell surface pyruvylation in the pvg4/mbx2 deletion mutant, as assessed by alcian blue staining and a Q-Sepharose binding assay. Instead, the deletion prevented invasive growth under conditions of low nitrogen and high glucose, and it reduced the adhesion and flocculation of otherwise flocculent mutants by reducing gsf2(+) expression. mbx2(+)-overexpressing strains exhibited nonsexual and calcium-dependent aggregation, which was inhibited in the presence of galactose but mediated by the induction of gsf2(+). These findings indicate that Mbx2 mediates invasive growth and flocculation via the transcriptional activation of gsf2(+) in fission yeast. In addition, we found that fission yeast Mbx2 induces the nonsexual flocculation of budding yeast by the activation of FLO1.