New Methods to Access GPI-Anchored Proteins and Study GPI-Anchored Proteomics

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New Methods to Access GPI-Anchored Proteins and Study GPI-Anchored Proteomics Glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) attachment to the protein and glycoprotein C-terminus is an important and ubiquitous posttranslational modification in eukaryotic species, which helps anchor proteins and glycoproteins to the extracellular membrane. GPI-anchored proteins and glycoproteins play a pivotal role in various biological and pathological processes. However, currently, detailed studies on these molecules and their functions are limited, mainly because of the difficulty to access them in pure form and sufficient quantity and the lack of proper tools to analyze these diverse, complex, and amphipathic molecules. Therefore, it is highly desirable to have strategies that can facilitate access to and investigation of GPI-anchored proteins and glycoproteins. The ultimate goals of this research project are to develop strategies that enable access to homogeneous and structurally defined natural GPI-anchored proteins and glycoproteins and strategies that enable rapid, effective isolation and analysis of GPI-anchored proteins and glycoproteins. Accordingly, this proposal has three specific aims. Aim 1 is to prepare both the recombinant catalytic subunit GPI8 of GPI transamidase (GPI-T), the natural enzyme used by eukaryotic cells to attach GPIs to proteins, and membrane-associated intact GPI-T derived from the cell endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and use them to create a potentially general method for enzymatic synthesis of natural GPI-anchored proteins and glycoproteins. Aim 2 is to develop a practical strategy for the study of GPI- anchored proteins expressed by cells via metabolic engineering of GPI-anchored protein biosynthetic pathways, namely, to give cells or isolated ERs a tagged synthetic GPI analog that can be used by GPI-T to add to proteins bound for GPI attachment. This will result in the specific labeling of GPI-anchored proteins to enable their rapid isolation and then MS-based proteomics analysis. Aim 3 is to develop a practical strategy for the study of cell surface GPI-anchored proteomics by using CAPM factor, a bacterial toxin that has a high-affinity binding to GPI anchors, to facilitate the isolation of GPI-linked proteins and glycoproteins released from cells upon treatment with phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C enzyme and subsequent GPI-anchored proteomics analysis. Both the strategy for natural GPI-anchored protein and glycoprotein synthesis and the two strategies for GPI- anchored proteomics study are original and innovative, because currently there is no method for the synthesis of truly natural GPI-anchored proteins/glycoproteins and no proper method for systematic study of GPI-anchored proteomics. The proposed research will have a broad and significant impact. A practical synthetic method for GPI-anchored proteins and glycoproteins will allow access to these important molecules and their functionalized analogs in pure and defined forms for various biological and biophysical studies. Strategies allowing systematic study of GPI-anchored proteomics will help reveal the relationships between GPI-anchored proteins and diseases, as well as other important information, and help identify new protein markers. The results will be widely useful for the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies with modulated activity, targeting ability, etc.