O-methylated N-glycans distinguish mosses from vascular plants

Abstract: In the animal kingdom, a stunning variety of N-glycan structures have emerged with phylogenetic specificities of various kinds. In the plant kingdom, however, N-glycosylation appears to be strictly conservative and uniform. From mosses to all kinds of gymno- and angiosperms, land plants mainly express structures with the common pentasaccharide core substituted with xylose, core α1,3-fucose, maybe terminal GlcNAc residues and Lewis A determinants. In contrast, green algae biosynthesise unique and unusual N-glycan structures with uncommon monosaccharides, a plethora of different structures and various kinds of O-methylation. Mosses, a group of plants that are separated by at least 400 million years of evolution from vascular plants, have hitherto been seen as harbouring an N-glycosylation machinery identical to that of vascular plants. To challenge this view, we analysed the N-glycomes of several moss species using MALDI-TOF/TOF, PGC-MS/MS and GC-MS. While all species contained the plant-typical heptasaccharide with no, one or two terminal GlcNAc residues (MMXF, MGnXF and GnGnXF, respectively), many species exhibited MS signals with 14.02 Da increments as characteristic for O-methylation. Throughout all analysed moss N-glycans, the level of methylation differed strongly even within the same family. In some species, methylated glycans dominated, while others had no methylation at all. GC-MS revealed the main glycan from Funaria hygrometrica to contain 2,6-O-methylated terminal mannose. Some mosses additionally presented very large, likewise methylated complex-type N-glycans. This first finding of the methylation of N-glycans in land plants mirrors the presumable phylogenetic relation of mosses to green algae, where the O-methylation of mannose and many other monosaccharides is a common trait

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Biomolecules. - 12, 1 (2022) , 136, ISSN: 2218-273X

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Freiburg
• (who): Universität
• (when): 2022
• Creator: Stenitzer, David ; Mócsai, Réka ; Zechmeister, Harald ; Reski, Ralf ; Decker, Eva ; Altmann, Friedrich

Further information

• DOI: 10.3390/biom12010136
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:25-freidok-2255841
• Rights: Kein Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 15.08.2025, 7:21 AM CEST