Cloning and expression of cDNA for a human Sia alpha 2,3Gal beta 1, 4GlcNA:alpha 2,8-sialyltransferase (hST8Sia III).

The cDNA encoding human Sia-alpha2,3-Gal-beta1,4-GlcNAc-R:alpha2, 8-sialyltransferase, hST8Sia III, was isolated by screening of a human brain cDNA library with polymerase chain reaction-amplified DNA probe generated from the sequence of mouse ST8Sia III (mST8Sia III) and by 5' rapid amplification of cDNA ends of mRNA isolated from human brain tissues. Comparative analysis of the predicted protein-coding region between our cloned hST8Sia III and mST8Sia III showed 92 and 96% identities in the nucleotide and the amino acid sequence, respectively. The soluble hST8Sia III protein expressed in COS-7 showed an extremely high catalytic activity of transferring sialic acid through alpha2,8-linkage to intact fetuin glycoprotein, whereas the transferring activity was completely undetectable toward either alpha2,6-sialylated glycoprotein or desialylated glycoprotein acceptors. Northern analysis of hST8Sia III showed that the transcript corresponding to 11 kb was expressed in both human fetal and adult brain, while the expression of the 5.5-kb transcript was restricted to fetal liver, indicating that the expression of hST8Sia III is developmentally and tissue-specifically regulated.