Ganglioside biosynthesis in rat liver golgi apparatus: stimulation by phosphatidylglycerol and inhibition by tunicamycin.

Golgi vesicles were isolated and purified from rat liver, in which the specific activities of glycosyltransferases (e.g. GM3: CMP-NeuAc sialyltransferase, GD3-synthase; GM3: UDP-GalNAc galactosaminyltransferase, GM2-synthase) were 50-60 times enriched relative to microsomes or total homogenate. Synthesis of gangliosides GM2 and GM1 in such Golgi vesicles is, in the absence of any detergents, stimulated 6- and 20-fold, respectively, by phosphatidylglycerol. Other phospholipids like dolichyl phosphate, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylserine are also significantly stimulatory. Tunicamycin inhibits the synthesis of gangliosides GM2 and GM1 in isolated Golgi vesicles, but only in the absence of detergents. The dependence on phosphatidylglycerol and the degree of inhibition by tunicamycin of the synthetic activities are strictly dependent on the intactness of the Golgi vesicles: both phenomena become increasingly less evident when the vesicles are pelleted, and frozen and thawed several times, and completely disappear when the vesicles are solubilized by the detergents or disrupted by ultrasonication. Furthermore, tunicamycin inhibition is reversible by increased concentration of phosphatidylglycerol. In pronase-treated Golgi vesicles, which retain full enzyme activity, both phospholipid-dependence and tunicamycin inhibition of the synthetic activity disappear completely. When freshly prepared Golgi vesicles are incubated with 125 microM UDP [3H]Gal for 10 min at 30 degrees C, the nucleotide sugar is found to be transported into the vesicles at the rate of about 85 pmoles/mg protein/min, 92% of radiolabel remaining firmly bound with membrane. Tunicamycin inhibits this transport in a concentration-dependent manner. The results show that, while the mechanism of phosphatidylglycerol induced stimulation of the synthetic activity remains unclear, tunicamycin inhibits ganglioside biosynthesis by blocking the transport of the nucleotide sugar across Golgi vesicles and not inhibiting the transferase enzyme directly.