Cell-type-specific labeling and profiling of glycans in living mice

Metabolic labeling of glycans with clickable unnatural sugars has enabled glycan analysis in multicellular systems. However, cell-type-specific labeling of glycans in vivo remains challenging. Here we develop genetically encoded metabolic glycan labeling (GeMGL), a cell-type-specific strategy based on a bump-and-hole pair of an unnatural sugar and its matching engineered enzyme. N -pentynylacetylglucosamine (GlcNAl) serves as a bumped analog of N -acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) that is specifically incorporated into glycans of cells expressing a UDP-GlcNAc pyrophosphorylase mutant, AGX2 F383G . GeMGL with the 1,3-di- O -propionylated GlcNAl (1,3-Pr 2 GlcNAl) and AGX2 F383G pair was demonstrated in cell cocultures, and used for specific labeling of glycans in mouse xenograft tumors. By generating a transgenic mouse line with AGX2 F383G expressed under a cardiomyocyte-specific promoter, we performed specific imaging of cardiomyocyte glycans in the heart and identified 582 cardiomyocyte O-GlcNAcylated proteins with no interference from other cardiac cell types. GeMGL will facilitate cell-type-specific glycan imaging and glycoproteomics in various tissues and disease models.