Carbohydrates of influenza virus hemagglutinin: structures of the whole neutral sugar chains

The carbohydrates of BHA, a solubilized hemagglutinin of influenza virus by bromelain digestion, were quantitatively released as oligosaccharides by hydrazinolysis. The oligosaccharide mixture was separated into a neutral and two acidic fractions by paper electrophoresis. Both acidic fractions were resistant to sialidase digestion but were slowly converted to the neutral fraction by incubation with sulfatases. The neutral fraction which comprised about 80% in molar ratio of total oligosaccharides was separated into 13 oligosaccharides by paper chromatography and by Con A-Sepharose column chromatography. Structural studies of these oligosaccharides by sequential exoglycosidase digestion and by methylation analysis revealed that BHA contains a series of high mannose type and bi-, tri-, and tetraantennary complex type sugar chains. Occurrence of Gal beta l leads to 3GlcNAc outer chain in two and bisectional N-acetylglucosamine in one of the biantennary sugar chains is an interesting characteristic of the sugar chains of BHA.