Sialic acid-containing sugar chains of hen ovalbumin and ovomucoid.

The acidic oligosaccharide fractions released from hen ovalbumin and ovomucoid by hydrazinolysis contain both sialyloligosaccharides and sulfated oligosaccharides. The sialyloligosaccharides were converted into neutral oligosaccharides by sialidase digestion, and separated from sulfated oligosaccharides by paper electrophoresis. Structural studies of these neutral oligosaccharides showed that the oligosaccharides of ovalbumin have different structural characteristics from those of ovomucoid, i.e., all sialyloligosaccharides from ovomucoid contain a pentasaccharide, alpha-D-Manp-(1----3)-[alpha-D-Manp-(1----6)]-beta-D-Manp -(1----4)-GlcpNAc- (1----4)-GlcpNAc, as a common core, and the smallest oligomannosyl core of the sugar chains from ovalbumin is alpha-D-Manp-(1----3)-alpha-D-Manp-(1----6)-[alpha-D-Manp -(1----3)]-beta-D- Manp-(1----4)-GlcpNAc-(1----4)-GlcpNAc. By methanolysis followed by N-acetylation, sialyl oligosaccharides, free from sulfated oligosaccharides, were recovered quantitatively from the acidic fractions of ovalbumin and ovomucoid. Methylation analysis of these sialyloligosaccharide mixtures, before and after sialidase digestion, showed that all sialic acid of both glycoproteins occurs as a alpha-Sia-(2----3)-D-Galp group.