Effect of glycosylation on yeast invertase oligomer stability

Yeast external invertase is a glycoprotein that exists as a dimer that can associate to form tetramers, hexamers, and octamers (Chu, F., Watorek, W., and Maley, F. (1983) Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 223, 543-555; Esmon, P. C., Esmon, B. E., Schauer, I. E., Taylor, A., and Schekman, R. (1987) J. Biol. Chem., 262, 4395-4401), a process that is facilitated by the attached oligosaccharide chains. We have studied this association by high performance liquid chromatography on a gel filtration matrix, by which procedure wild-type bakers' yeast invertase gives two peaks, and invertase from a core mutant (mnn1 mnn9) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae X2180 gives three peaks. Concentration of an invertase solution by freezing drives the dimers into higher aggregates that, at 30 degrees C, re-equilibrate to a mixture of smaller forms, the composition of which depends on pH, concentration, and time. The invertase from a mutant, mnn1 mnn9 dpg1, which underglycosylates its glycoproteins and produces invertase with 4-7 oligosaccharide chains, forms oligomers of much lower stability than the mnn1 mnn9 invertase, which has 8-11 carbohydrate chains. Both of these mutants release external invertase from the periplasm into the medium during growth, but we conclude that defects in the cell wall structure may be more important in this release than an altered tendency of the invertases to aggregate. Investigation of aggregate formation by electron microscopy revealed that all invertases, including the internal nonglycosylated enzyme, form octamers under appropriate conditions.