Abstract
A major glycoprotein of rat hepatoma plasma membranes was selectively released as a soluble form by incubating the membrane with phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C. The soluble form corresponding to the glycoprotein was also prepared by butan-1-ol extraction of microsomal membranes at pH 5.5, whereas extraction at pH 8.5 yielded an electrophoretically different form with a hydrophobic nature. The soluble glycoprotein extracted at pH 5.5 was purified by sequential chromatography on concanavalin A-Sepharose, Sephacryl S-300 and anti-(alkaline phosphatase) IgG-Sepharose, the last step being used to remove a contaminating alkaline phosphatase. The glycoprotein thus purified was a single protein with Mr 130,000 in SDS/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis, although it behaved as a dimer in gel filtration on Sephacryl S-300. The glycoprotein was analysed for amino acid and carbohydrate composition. The composition of the carbohydrate moiety, which amounted to 64% by weight, suggested that the glycoprotein contained much larger numbers of N-linked oligosaccharide chains than those with O-linkage. It was confirmed that the purified glycoprotein was immunologically identical not only with that released by the phospholipase C but also with the hydrophobic form extracted with butan-1-ol at pH 8.5. The results indicate that the glycoprotein of rat hepatoma plasma membranes, which has an unusually high content of carbohydrate, is another membrane protein released by phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C, as documented for alkaline phosphatase, acetylcholinesterase and Thy-1 antigen.