Glycan structures contain information for the spatial arrangement of glycoproteins in the plasma membrane.

Glycoconjugates at the cell surface are crucial for cells to communicate with each other and the extracellular microenvironment. While it is generally accepted that glycans are vectorial biopolymers, their information content is unclear. This report provides evidence that distinct N-glycan structures influence the spatial arrangement of two integral membrane glycoproteins, Kv3.1 and E-cadherin, at the adherent membrane which in turn alter cellular properties. Distinct N-glycan structures were generated by heterologous expression of these glycoproteins in parental and glycosylation mutant Chinese hamster ovary cell lines. Unlike the N-linked glycans, the O-linked glycans of the mutant cell lines are similar to those of the parental cell line. Western and lectin blots of total membranes and GFP immunopurified samples, combined with glycosidase digestion reactions, were employed to verify the glycoproteins had predominantly complex, oligomannose, and bisecting type N-glycans from Pro(-)5, Lec1, and Lec10B cell lines, respectively. Based on total internal reflection fluorescence and differential interference contrast microscopy techniques, and cellular assays of live parental and glycosylation mutant CHO cells, we propose that glycoproteins with complex, oligomannose or bisecting type N-glycans relay information for localization of glycoproteins to various regions of the plasma membrane in both a glycan-specific and protein-specific manner, and furthermore cell-cell interactions are required for deciphering much of this information. These distinct spatial arrangements also impact cell adhesion and migration. Our findings provide direct evidence that N-glycan structures of glycoproteins contribute significantly to the information content of cells.