Detection of weak sugar binding activity of VIP36 using VIP36-streptavidin complex and membrane-based sugar chains

High mannose-type glycan-lectin interactions play important roles especially in quality control of glycoproteins. VIP36 is a receptor with homology to plant leguminous lectins in its luminal region. The luminal region of VIP36 with a C-terminal biotinylation-tag (sVIP36) was expressed in Escherichia coli and oligomerized with R-phycoerythrin (PE)-labelled streptavidin. Flow cytometric analysis revealed that PE-labelled sVIP36-SA complex (sVIP36-SA) bound to deoxymannojirimycin (DMJ)- and kifunensine (KIF)-treated HeLaS3 cells. The binding of sVIP36-SA to HeLaS3 cells treated with DMJ or KIF was abolished by endo-beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase H treatment of the cells. Furthermore, the binding of sVIP36-SA to the cells was inhibited by high mannose-type glycans especially Man(7-9) GlcNAc(2), indicating that the binding of sVIP36-SA to cell surfaces was mediated by high mannose-type glycans. Although VIP36 has the lower affinity for ligands than typical homologous plant lectins, we were able to monitor the sugar-binding activity of VIP36 using less than 100 ng of the sVIP36-SA. This method is highly sensitive and suitable for detecting interactions between lectins and sugar chains of low affinity.