Addition of truncated oligosaccharides to influenza virus hemagglutinin results in its temperature-conditional cell-surface expression.

In the preceding paper (Hearing, J., E. Hunter, L. Rodgers, M.-J. Gething, and J. Sambrook. 1989. J. Cell Biol. 108:339-353) we described the isolation and initial characterization of seven Chinese hamster ovary cell lines that are temperature conditional for the cell-surface expression of influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) and other integral membrane glycoproteins. Two of these cell lines appeared to be defective for the synthesis and/or addition of mannose-rich oligosaccharide chains to nascent glycoproteins. In this paper we show that at both 32 and 39 degrees C in two mutant cell lines accumulate a truncated version, Man5GlcNAc2, of the normal lipid-linked precursor oligosaccharide, Glc3Man9GlcNAc2. This is possibly due to a defect in the synthesis of dolichol phosphate because in vitro assays indicate that the mutant cells are not deficient in mannosylphosphoryldolichol synthase at either temperature. A mixture of truncated and complete oligosaccharide chains was transferred to newly synthesized glycoproteins at both the permissive and restrictive temperatures. Both mutant cell lines exhibited altered sensitivity to cytotoxic plant lectins when grown at 32 degrees C, indicating that cellular glycoproteins bearing abnormal oligosaccharide chains were transported to the cell surface at the permissive temperature. Although glycosylation was defective at both 32 and 39 degrees C, the cell lines were temperature conditional for growth, suggesting that cellular glycoproteins were adversely affected by the glycosylation defect at the elevated temperature. The temperature-conditional expression of HA on the cell surface was shown to be due to impairment at 39 degrees C of the folding, trimerization, and stability of HA molecules containing truncated oligosaccharide chains.