Abstract
NKG2D is an activating receptor expressed on several types of human lymphocytes. NKG2D ligands can be induced upon cell stress and are frequently targeted post-translationally in infected or transformed cells to avoid immune recognition. Virus infection and inflammation alter protein N-glycosylation, and we have previously shown that changes in cellular N-glycosylation are involved in regulation of NKG2D ligand surface expression. The specific mode of regulation through N-glycosylation is, however, unknown. Here we investigated whether direct N-glycosylation of the NKG2D ligand MICA itself is critical for cell surface expression and sought to identify the essential residues. We found that a single N-glycosylation site (Asn(8)) was important for MICA018 surface expression. The frequently expressed MICA allele 008, with an altered transmembrane and intracellular domain, was not affected by mutation of this N-glycosylation site. Mutational analysis revealed that a single amino acid (Thr(24)) in the extracellular domain of MICA018 was essential for the N-glycosylation dependence, whereas the intracellular domain was not involved. The HHV7 immunoevasin, U21, was found to inhibit MICA018 surface expression by affecting N-glycosylation, and the retention was rescued by T24A substitution. Our study reveals N-glycosylation as an allele-specific regulatory mechanism important for regulation of surface expression of MICA018, and we pinpoint the residues essential for this N-glycosylation dependence. In addition, we show that this regulatory mechanism of MICA surface expression is likely targeted during different pathological conditions.