The yeast WBP1 is essential for oligosaccharyl transferase activity in vivo and in vitro

Asparagine-linked N-glycosylation is a highly conserved and functionally important modification of proteins in eukaryotic cells. The central step in this process is a cotranslational transfer of lipid-linked core oligosaccharides to selected Asn-X-Ser/Thr-sequences of nascent polypeptide chains, catalysed by the enzyme N-oligosaccharyl transferase. In this report we show that the essential yeast protein WBP1 (te Heesen et al., 1991) is required for N-oligosaccharyl transferase in vivo and in vitro. Depletion of WBP1 correlates with a defect in transferring core oligosaccharides to carboxypeptidase Y and proteinase A in vivo. In addition, in vitro N-glycosylation of the acceptor peptide Tyr-Asn-Leu-Thr-Ser-Val using microsomal membranes from WBP1 depleted cells is reduced as compared with membranes from wild-type cells. We propose that WBP1 is an essential component of the oligosaccharyl transferase in yeast.