(425d) Scaling Down the Size and Increasing the Throughput of Glycosyltransferase Assays: Activity Changes On Stem Cell Differentiation

Glycosyltransferases (GlycoTs) catalyze the transfer of monosaccharides from nucleotide-sugars to carbohydrate, lipid and protein based acceptors. We examined strategies to scale down and increase the throughput of glycoT enzymatic assays since traditional methods require large reaction volumes and complex chromatography. Approaches tested used: i) microarray pin-printing. an appropriate method when glycoT activity was high; ii) microwells and microcentrifuge tubes, a suitable method for studies with cell lysates when enzyme activity was moderate; or iii) C₁₈ pipette tips and solvent-extraction, a method that enriched reaction product when the extent of reaction was low. In all cases, reverse phase-thin layer chromatography (RP-TLC) coupled with phosphorimaging quantified reaction rate. Studies with mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) demonstrate an increase in overall β(1,3)galactosyltransferase and α(2,3)sialyltransferase activity, and a decrease in α(1,3)fucosyltransferases when these cells differentiate towards cardiomyocytes. Enzymatic and lectin binding data suggest a transition from Le^X type structures in mESCs to sialylated Galβ1,3GalNAc type glycans upon differentiation, with more prominent changes in enzyme activity occurring at later stages when embryoid bodies differentiated toward cardiomyocytes. Overall, simple, rapid, quantitative and scalable glycoT activity analysis methods are presented. These use a range of natural and synthetic acceptors for the analysis of complex biological specimen that have limited availability.