Cotranslational fatty acylation of mucus glycoprotein. Addition of palmitic acid to peptidyl-tRNA occurs prior to peptide chain completion and its release.

1. The fatty acylation of mucus glycoprotein nascent peptides was investigated using [3H]palmitic acid and [35S]methionine-labeled peptidyl-tRNA of rat gastric mucous cells. 2. The mucus glycoprotein peptidyl-tRNA fraction was found to contain covalently bound palmitic acid in its complexes. 3. RNase digestion of the mucus glycoprotein peptidyl-tRNA released [3H]palmitic acid labeled peptides which, on SDS-polyacrylamide gel, separated into a multitude of bands ranging in size from 2000 to 60,000 Da. 4. The analyses of low molecular weight peptides revealed that palmitic acid was present in methionine-labeled peptides containing 30-43 amino acids and those of 18-25 amino acids or larger devoid of methionine, but was not identified in methionine-labeled peptides containing 10-15 amino acids. 5. The results indicate that the N-terminal fatty acylation of mucus glycoprotein nascent peptides is a cotranslational process which is occurring in an immediate vicinity of the signal peptide fragment.