Structural analysis of N- and O-glycans using ZIC-HILIC/dialysis coupled to NMR detection

Protein glycosylation, an important and complex post-translational modification (PTM), is involved in various biological processes, including the receptor-ligand and cell-cell interaction, and plays a crucial role in many biological functions. However, little is known about the glycan structures of important biological complex samples, and the conventional glycan enrichment strategy (i.e., size-exclusion column [SEC] separation) prior to nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) detection is time-consuming and tedious. In this study, we developed a glycan enrichment strategy that couples Zwitterionic hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (ZIC-HILIC) with dialysis to enrich the glycans from the pronase E digests of RNase B, followed by NMR analysis of the glycoconjugate. Our results suggest that the ZIC-HILIC enrichment coupled with dialysis is a simple, fast, and efficient sample preparation approach. The approach was thus applied to analysis of a biological complex sample, the pronase E digest of the secreted proteins from the fungus Aspergillus niger. The NMR spectra revealed that the secreted proteins from A. niger contain both N-linked glycans with a high-mannose core similar to the structure of the glycan from RNase B, and O-linked glycans bearing mannose and glucose with 1→3 and 1→6 linkages. In all, our study provides compelling evidence that ZIC-HILIC separation coupled with dialysis is very effective and accessible in preparing glycans for the downstream NMR analysis, which could greatly facilitate the future NMR-based glycoproteomics research.