[Differential effect of tunicamycin on glycosylation of cell surface glycoproteins from chick fibroblasts during embryo development (author's transl)].

The antibiotic tunicamycin inhibits glycosylation of proteins as demonstrated by the inhibition of the incorporation of 14C glucosamine glycoproteins of chick embryo fibroblasts at two stages of development. Fibroblasts from 8-day embryos are more sensitive to TM treatment than 16-day embryos. This differential effect is directly related to the level of N- and O-glycosidically linked glycoproteins. This ratio decreased within development. Moreover, a parallelism is observed between inhibition of cell surface glycoprotein glycosylation by TM and adhesion properties of treated cells, suggesting that N- glycosidically linked glycoproteins might be involved in cell adhesivity.