Trypanosoma brucei variant surface glycoprotein has a sn-1,2-dimyristyl glycerol membrane anchor at its COOH terminus

Michael A. J. Ferguson, Kasturi Haldar, George A. M. Cross

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    190 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The membrane form of Trypanosoma brucei variant surface glycoprotein (mfVSG) is acylated with ester-linked tetradecanoic (myristic) acid (Ferguson, M. A. J., and Cross, G. A. M. (1984) J. Biol. Chem. 259, 3011-3015). Comparative analysis of Pronase peptides from mfVSG and soluble VSG localizes the site of mfVSG acylation to a COOH-terminal oligosaccharide structure. Chemical and enzymatic treatment of the acylated Pronase mfVSG fragment revealed that the myristic acid is present as a diglyceride (sn-1,2-dimy-ristin) that is probably linked to the COOH-terminal oligosaccharide via a phosphodiester bond between the sn-3-glycerol hydroxyl and a sugar hydroxyl group. The endogenous membrane-associated enzyme, which quantitatively cleaves myristic acid from mfVSG to produce soluble VSG, releases diglyceride, as would be expected of a phospholipase C.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)4963-4968
    Number of pages6
    JournalJournal of Biological Chemistry
    Volume260
    Issue number8
    Publication statusPublished - 25 Apr 1985

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