In the endosperm of Ricinus communis (castor bean) a number of glycosyl transferases were found to be present during germination. They catalyze the incorporation of mannose from guanosine diphosphate mannose and of N-acetylglucosamine from uridine diphosphate N-acetylglucosamine into a glycolipid fraction, which had all of the properties of dolichylphosphate and pyrophosphate sugars, respectively. The sugar moiety of dolichylphosphate mannose is transferred to a lipid-oligosaccharide, containing more than 6 hexose units. When the membranes are preincubated with nonradioactive guanosine diphosphate mannose and uridine diphosphate N-acetylglucosamine, radioactivity from dolichylphosphate [14C]mannose is also transferred to a glycopolymer. In addition, the formation of radioactive glycoproteins from guanosine diphosphate [14C]mannose has been demonstrated using a combination of sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and autofluorography.All of these reactions occur with the highest specific as well as total activity in the endoplasmic reticulum fraction. Whereas a membrane fraction lighter than the endoplasmic reticulum also contains a significant amount of glycosyl transfer activity, the enzymes seem to be present in very low amounts in glyoxysomes and mitochondria. The activities of the various reactions increase severalfold during the first days of germination, i.e. the time of rapid formation of glyoxysomes. The importance of these results in relation to intracellular protein segregation is discussed.
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