Multiple N-glycans cooperate in the subcellular targeting and functioning of Arabidopsis KORRIGAN1. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Arabidopsis thaliana KORRIGAN1 (KOR1) is an integral membrane endo-1,4-glucanase in the trans-Golgi network and plasma membrane that is essential for cellulose biosynthesis. The extracellular domain of KOR1 contains eight N-glycosylation sites, N1 to N8, of which only N3 to N7 are highly conserved. Genetic evidence indicated that cellular defects in attachment and maturation of these N-glycans affect KOR1 function in vivo, whereas the manner by which N-glycans modulate KOR1 function remained obscure. Site-directed mutagenesis analysis of green fluorescent protein (GFP)-KOR1 expressed from its native regulatory sequences established that all eight N-glycosylation sites (N1 to N8) are used in the wild type, whereas stt3a-2 cells could only inefficiently add N-glycans to less conserved sites. GFP-KOR1 variants with a single N-glycan at nonconserved sites were less effective than those with one at a highly conserved site in rescuing the root growth phenotype of rsw2-1 (kor1 allele). When functionally compromised, GFP-KOR1 tended to accumulate at the tonoplast. GFP-KOR1all (without any N-glycan) exhibited partial complementation of rsw2-1; however, root growth of this line was still negatively affected by the absence of complex-type N-glycan modifications in the host plants. These results suggest that one or several additional factor(s) carrying complex N-glycans cooperate(s) with KOR1 in trans to grant proper targeting/functioning in plant cells.

published proceedings

  • Plant Cell

author list (cited authors)

  • Rips, S., Bentley, N., Jeong, I. S., Welch, J. L., von Schaewen, A., & Koiwa, H.

citation count

  • 47

complete list of authors

  • Rips, Stephan||Bentley, Nolan||Jeong, In Sil||Welch, Justin L||von Schaewen, Antje||Koiwa, Hisashi

publication date

  • September 2014