Trimming of N-linked oligosaccharides by endoplasmic reticulum (ER) glucosidase II is implicated in quality control of protein folding. An alternate glucosidase II-independent deglucosylation pathway exists, in which endo-␣-mannosidase cleaves internally the glucose-substituted mannose residue of oligosaccharides. By immunogold labeling, we detected most endomannosidase in cis/medial Golgi cisternae (83.8% of immunogold labeling) and less in the intermediate compartment (15.1%), but none in the trans-Golgi apparatus and ER, including its transitional elements. This dual localization became more pronounced under 15°C conditions indicative of two endomannosidase locations. Under experimental conditions when the intermediate compartment marker p58 was retained in peripheral sites, endomannosidase was redistributed to the Golgi apparatus. Double immunogold labeling established a mutually exclusive distribution of endomannosidase and glucosidase II, whereas calreticulin was observed in endomannosidasereactive sites (17.3% in intermediate compartment, 5.7% in Golgi apparatus) in addition to the ER (77%). Our results demonstrate that glucose trimming of N-linked oligosaccharides is not limited to the ER and that protein deglucosylation by endomannosidase in the Golgi apparatus and intermediate compartment additionally ensures that processing to mature oligosaccharides can continue. Thus, endomannosidase localization suggests that a quality control of N-glycosylation exists in the Golgi apparatus.
INTRODUCTIONA common posttranslational modification on proteins, while being present in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), is the addition of asparagine-linked oligosaccharides. Immediately after the transfer of the lipid-linked preassembled Glc 3 Man 9 GlcNAc 2 oligosaccharide to asparagine, the glucose residues are trimmed by the sequential action of the ER residents glucosidase I and II (reviewed in Moremen et al., 1994;Roth, 1995). Although it has been known for some time that the glucose residues are essential determinants for Nglycosylation (Spiro et al., 1979;Turco and Robbins, 1979;Murphy and Spiro, 1981) and that subsequent excision of these sugars is required for the formation of complex carbohydrate units, it is only recently that the monoglucosylated oligosaccharide has been implicated in quality control of ER-situated protein folding (reviewed in Ellgaard et al., 1999). Monoglucosylated oligosaccharide intermediate involved in this process can be generated either by glucosidase II trimming Hebert et al., 1995;Jakob et al., 1998b) or by reglucosylation through the action of UDP-Glc:glycoprotein glucosyltransferase (Trombetta and Parodi, 1992;Sousa and Parodi, 1995;Fernandez et al., 1996;Fanchiotti et al., 1998). Current evidence points to an ER control mechanism monitoring the folding state of proteins by the concerted action of UDP-Glc:glycoprotein glucosyltransferase, glucosidase II, and various chaperones, including calnexin and calreticulin (Zapun et al., 1988;Oliver et al., 1997;Zhang et al., 1997;Jakob et al., 1...