Glycan microarray screening assay for glycosyltransferase specificities

Methods Mol Biol. 2013:1022:1-14. doi: 10.1007/978-1-62703-465-4_1.

Abstract

Glycan microarrays represent a high-throughput approach to determining the specificity of glycan-binding proteins against a large set of glycans in a single format. This chapter describes the use of a glycan microarray platform for evaluating the activity and substrate specificity of glycosyltransferases (GTs). The methodology allows simultaneous screening of hundreds of immobilized glycan acceptor substrates by in situ incubation of a GT and its appropriate donor substrate on the microarray surface. Using biotin-conjugated donor substrate enables direct detection of the incorporated sugar residues on acceptor substrates on the array. In addition, the feasibility of the method has been validated using label-free donor substrate combined with lectin-based detection of product to assess enzyme activity. Here, we describe the application of both procedures to assess the specificity of a recombinant human α2-6 sialyltransferase. This technique is readily adaptable to studying other glycosyltransferases.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biotinylation
  • Enzyme Assays / methods*
  • Glycosyltransferases / metabolism*
  • High-Throughput Screening Assays / methods
  • Humans
  • Microarray Analysis / methods*
  • Polysaccharides / chemistry
  • Polysaccharides / metabolism*
  • Recombinant Proteins / metabolism
  • Sialyltransferases / metabolism
  • Substrate Specificity
  • beta-D-Galactoside alpha 2-6-Sialyltransferase

Substances

  • Polysaccharides
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • Glycosyltransferases
  • Sialyltransferases
  • beta-D-Galactoside alpha 2-6-Sialyltransferase