Targeting of beta-glucuronidase to lysosomes in mannose 6-phosphate receptor-deficient MOPC 315 cells

The murine plasma cell line MOPC 315 efficiently targets newly synthesized acid hydrolases to lysosomes in spite of a marked deficiency in the level of the mannose 6-phosphate receptor (Gabel, C., D. Goldberg, and S. Kornfeld, 1983, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 80:775- 779). To better understand the routing of lysosomal enzymes in this cell line, pulse-chase experiments were performed with [2-3H]mannose and [35S]methionine followed by immunoprecipitation of beta- glucuronidase and IgA. By 3 h of chase, essentially all of the newly synthesized beta-glucuronidase had undergone proteolytic processing, suggesting that the molecules had reached lysosomes. At this time 30% of the pulse-labeled IgA was still intracellular. The oligosaccharides on the intracellular IgA were of the high mannose-type, while the secreted IgA contained processed, complex-type oligosaccharides. This indicates that the intracellular IgA was still in the endoplasmic reticulum or an early region of the Golgi complex when all of the beta- glucuronidase had reached lysosomes. Therefore, beta-glucuronidase and IgA must exit from the endoplasmic reticulum or the early Golgi complex at different rates, a finding that is inconsistent with bulk phase movement of these proteins from the endoplasmic reticulum to the trans Golgi complex. The addition of the ionophore monensin greatly slows the rate of IgA secretion from MOPC 315 cells and the molecules secreted have incompletely processed oligosaccharides. In contrast, monensin only slightly delays the transport of newly synthesized beta- glucuronidase to lysosomes and causes no significant alteration in the extent of oligosaccharide phosphorylation, a process that appears to occur in the early (cis) Golgi complex. However, the labeled beta- glucuronidase was deficient in sialylated, phosphorylated hybrid oligosaccharides whose biosynthesis requires the action of late stage oligosaccharide processing enzymes assumed to be localized in the trans Golgi complex.