Golgi pH elevation due to loss of V-ATPase subunit V0a2 function correlates with tissue-specific glycosylation changes and globozoospermia.

Loss-of-function variants in ATP6V0A2, encoding the trans Golgi V-ATPase subunit V0a2, cause wrinkly skin syndrome (WSS), a connective tissue disorder with glycosylation defects and aberrant cortical neuron migration. We used knock-out (Atp6v0a2) and knock-in (Atp6v0a2) mice harboring the R755Q missense mutation selectively abolishing V0a2-mediated proton transport to investigate the WSS pathomechanism. Homozygous mutants from both strains displayed a reduction of growth, dermis thickness, and elastic fiber formation compatible with WSS. A hitherto unrecognized male infertility due to globozoospermia was evident in both mouse lines with impaired Golgi-derived acrosome formation and abolished mucin-type O-glycosylation in spermatids. Atp6v0a2 mutants showed enhanced fucosylation and glycosaminoglycan modification, but reduced levels of glycanated decorin and sialylation in skin and/or fibroblasts, which were absent or milder in Atp6v0a2. Atp6v0a2 mutants displayed more abnormal migration of cortical neurons, correlating with seizures and a reduced O-mannosylation of α-dystroglycan. While anterograde transport within the secretory pathway was similarly delayed in both mutants the brefeldin A-induced retrograde fusion of Golgi membranes with the endoplasmic reticulum was less impaired in Atp6v0a2. Measurement of the pH in the trans Golgi compartment revealed a shift from 5.80 in wildtype to 6.52 in Atp6v0a2 and 6.25 in Atp6v0a2. Our findings suggest that altered O-glycosylation is more relevant for the WSS pathomechanism than N-glycosylation and leads to a secondary dystroglycanopathy. Most phenotypic and cellular properties correlate with the different degrees of trans Golgi pH elevation in both mutants underlining the fundamental relevance of pH regulation in the secretory pathway.