Monitoring the N-glycosylation of plant glycoproteins by fluorophore-assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis

We have evaluated the efficiency of a fast, simple and efficient method, fl uorophore-assisted carbohydrate electrophoresis (FACE), for the characteriz ation of plant N-linked glycans. After their enzymatic release from plant g lycoproteins, N-glycans were reductively aminated to the charged fluorophor e 8-aminonaphthalene-1, 3, 6-trisulfonic acid (ANTS) and separated using hi gh resolution polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. In addition, an affinity purification procedure using concanavalin A was developed for separation of ANTS-labeled high-mannose-type N-glycans from other plant oligosaccharides .