Deletion of carboxy-terminal residues of murine granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor results in a loss of biologic activity and altered glycosylation.

A deletion mutant of murine granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) which differs in primary structure from native GM-CSF in the carboxy-terminal 11 amino acids was prepared. Four amino acid residues are mutated and the seven terminal residues including Cys-118 are deleted. Supernatants from COS-1 cells transfected with this deletion mutant (GM-CSF(del] showed a 3000-fold decrease in the ability to stimulate bone marrow stem cells to proliferate and differentiate into granulocytes and macrophages in vitro. Northern blot analysis using poly(A)+ RNA extracted from the transfected cells showed equal accumulations of GM-CSF and GM-CSF(del). Transfection with full-length GM-CSF followed by immunoprecipitation of metabolically labeled supernatant proteins with rabbit anti-rGM-CSF antiserum yielded predominantly the 23-kDa, fully glycosylated form and small amounts of both a 29-kDa form and the 18-kDa non-N-glycosylated form. Transfection of the GM-CSF(del) mutant and immunoprecipitation revealed a large, diffuse band on sodium dodecyl sulfate--polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with a molecular weight of about 29 kDa. Digestion of the immunoprecipitated 29-kDa species with N-glycanase converted the 29-kDa form into two forms of about 23 and 18 kDa, suggesting that the increase in molecular weight of the deletion mutant protein resulted from hyperglycosylation. Adding tunicamycin to the culture medium of cells transfected with GM-CSF(del) also yielded a single non-N-glycosylated species of about 18 kDa, but secretion was at a significantly lower level than either the 29-kDa hyperglycosylated GM-CSF(del) protein from non-tunicamycin-treated cells or the 18-kDa non-N-glycosylated full-length GM-CSF from tunicamycin-treated cells. Since very recent scanning-deletion analysis indicates that there is a critical region for activity near Cys-118 and that Cys-118 is necessary for maximal activity, we conclude that the Cys-118 residue is necessary for proper glycosylation and maximal biologic activity of GM-CSF.