Metabolic oligosaccharide engineering of Plasmodium falciparum intraerythrocytic stages allows direct glycolipid analysis by mass spectrometry

A recent addition to the arsenal of tools for glycome analysis is the use of metabolic labels that allow covalent tagging of glycans with imaging probes. In this work we show that N-azidoglucosamine was successfully incorporated into glycolipidic structures of Plasmodium falciparum intraerythrocytic stages. The ability to tag glycoconjugates selectively with a fluorescent reporter group permits TLC detection of the glycolipids providing a new method to quantify dynamic changes in the glycosylation pattern and facilitating direct mass spectrometry analyses. Presence of glycosylphosphatidylinositol and glycosphingolipid structures was determined in the different extracts. Furthermore, the fluorescent tag was used as internal matrix for the MALDI experiment making even easier the analysis.

N-azidoglucosamine was successfully incorporated into P. falciparum glycolipids. Tagging glycoconjugates with a fluorescent group permits TLC detection providing a new method to quantify dynamic changes.Figure optionsDownload high-quality image (160 K)Download as PowerPoint slideHighlight
► P. falciparum metabolic labelling using azido sugars enables the study of glycolipids.
► We determined the presence of labelled GPIs and glycosphingolipid structures.
► The fluorescent tag was used as internal matrix for the mass spectrometry process.