We investigated the role of glycosylation in intracellular transport and cell surface expression of the vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein (G) in cells expressing G protein from cloned cDNA. The individual contributions of the two asparagine-linked glycans of G protein to cell surface expression were assessed by site-directed mutagenesis of the coding sequence to eliminate one or the other or both of the glycosylation sites. One oligosaccharide at either position was sufficient for cell surface expression of G protein in transfected cells, and the rates of oligosaccharide processing were similar to the rate observed for wild-type protein. However, the nonglycosylated G protein synthesized when both glycosylation sites were eliminated did not reach the cell surface. This protein did appear to reach a Golgi-like region, as determined by indirect immunofluorescence microscopy, however, and was modified with palmitic acid. It was also apparently not subject to increased proteolytic breakdown.The carbohydrate moieties of glycoproteins have long been postulated to provide some function for the polypeptides to which they are covalently linked. Functions which have been implicated include maintenance of correct polypeptide conformation, protection from proteolytic degradation, and signals for intracellular targeting (reviewed in reference 29). Many experiments analyzing the role of asparagine-linked (N-linked) oligosaccharides on glycoproteins have used the antibiotic tunicamycin, which interferes with the synthesis of the lipid-linked precursor oligosaccharide and thus prevents addition of the core glycan to the nascent polypeptide (44, 46). The results of such experiments indicate that there is a wide range in the requirement for carbohydrates on secreted and integral membrane glycoproteins. Some proteins which normally contain N-linked oligosaccharides are not affected when they are synthesized in the presence of tunicamycin, whereas others fail to reach their correct cellular destination or are degraded (29).The glycoprotein (G protein) of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) has been extensively studied as a model for glycoprotein biosynthesis. This polypeptide is an integral membrane protein which contains 511 amino acids and the following three domains: a large amino-terminal external domain, a transmembrane domain of 20 amino acids, and a highly charged cytoplasmic domain of 29 amino acids (34). In infected cells, G protein is synthesized on membrane-bound ribosomes, and two high-mannose oligosaccharides are added cotranslationally as the polypeptide is extruded into the lumen of the rough endoplasmic reticulum (rER) (35). Translocation of the protein into the lumen stops at the hydrophobic transmembrane domain, and the membraneanchored polypeptide moves through the Golgi complex to the plasma membrane, where virus binding occurs (2,4,18). Several posttranslational modifications of G protein can be followed as the protein moves through the cell. These include the addition of palmitic acid to a cysteine residue in