Direct evidence for the transmembrane orientation of the hepatic glycoprotein receptors

The technique of vectorial labeling has been used to study the orientation of the rat and chicken receptors for asialo- and agalactoglycoproteins in hepatocyte membranes. The membrane-impermeant enzyme lactoperoxidase was used to radioiodinate the outer surfaces of intact cells and endocytic vesicles, as well as both sides of total microsomal membranes. Proteolytically and chemically produced fragments of the receptor polypeptides were analyzed to identify the tyrosine residues modified in each case. The results reveal that each of these receptors is a transmembrane glycoprotein arranged with its NH2 terminus facing the cytoplasm and its COOH terminus, containing the carbohydrate-binding site, exposed at the cell surface. While the primary structures of the chicken and rat receptors are highly homologous in the extracellular portions of the proteins, the cytoplasmic domains show no sequence similarity.