Resumen:
nitiation of mucin-type O-glycosylation is controlled by a large family of UDP GalNAc:polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferases (GalNAc-transferases). Most GalNAc-transferases contain a ricin-like lectin domain in the C-terminal end, which may confer GalNAc-glycopeptide substrate specificity to the enzyme. We have previously shown that the lectin domain of GalNAc-T4 modulates its substrate specificity to enable unique GalNAc-glycopeptide specificities and that this effect is selectively inhibitable by GalNAc; however, direct evidence of carbohydrate binding of GalNAc-transferase lectins has not been previously presented. Here, we report the direct carbohydrate binding of two GalNAc-transferase lectin domains, GalNAc-T4 and GalNAc-T2, representing isoforms reported to have distinct glycopeptide activity (GalNAc-T4) and isoforms without apparent distinct GalNAc-glycopeptide specificity (GalNAc-T2). Both lectins exhibited specificity for binding of free GalNAc. Kinetic and time-cour