Streamlining Sulfated Oligosaccharide and Glycan Synthesis with Engineered Mutant 6-SulfoGlcNAcases

Sulfation is a common, but poorly understood, post-glycosylational modification (PGM) used to modulate biological function. To deepen our understanding of the roles of various sulfated glycoforms and their relevant binding proteins, we must expand our enzymatic toolkit for their synthesis. Here, we bypass the need for both sulfotransferases and glycosyltransferases by engineering a series of mutants of a 6-SulfoGlcNAcase, from Streptococcus pneumoniae, to directly and efficiently synthesize not only the ubiquitous 6S-GlcNAc-β-1,3-Gal linkage prevalent within host glycans, but also the 6S-GlcNAc-β-1,6-GalNAc commonly observed within core-6 O-glycans, and the more exotic 6S-GlcNAc-β-1,4-GalNAc linkage. We further elaborate these into complex sulfated N-glycan and O-glycan structures of biological relevance. By utilizing the cost-effective activated donor pNP-6S-GlcNAc in conjunction with mutant GH185 6-SulfoGlcNAcases we demonstrate a simple yet powerful in vitro method for generating well-defined sulfated oligosaccharides and glycoforms for use in a variety of applications including glycan arrays, glycan remodeling, and specificity studies with carbohydrate binding proteins such as lectins.