Interaction of immunoglobulin glycopeptides with concanavalin A

A number of intact and partially degraded immunoglobulin glycopeptides have been tested for their ability to interact with concanavalin A. The degraded glycopeptides were prepared by using purified glycosidases to remove sugar residues from the nonreducing ends of the oligosaccharide chains of intact glycopeptides. A quantitative and sensitive assay was devised to measure the potency of the glycopeptides as haptene inhibitors of 125I-concanavalin A binding to guinea pig erythrocytes. The most potent haptene, derived from an immunoglobulin G glycopeptide, had a branched chain oligosaccharide with two GlcNAc (see article) Man (see article) nonreducing termini linked to a mannose residue in the core. The other very potent glycopeptide was an immunoglobulin E high mannose glycopeptide which contained 3 terminal alpha-mannose residues and 1 internal 2-O-mannose residue. Removal of terminal beta-N-acetylglucosamine residues or alpha-mannose residues reduced the activity of these and other glycopeptides as inhibitors of 125I-concanavalin A binding. It was concluded that the ability of these glycopeptides to interact with concanavalin A is dependent on their content of terminal beta-N-acetylglucosamine residues, terminal alpha-mannose residues, and also internal mannose residues substituted on the C-2 hydroxyl group, and that the saccharide combining site of concanavalin A must be able to bind several sugar residues.