Chemoenzymatic Synthesis of a Type 2 Blood Group A Tetrasaccharide and Development of High-throughput Assays Enables a Platform for Screening Blood Group Antigen-cleaving Enzymes.
A facile enzymatic synthesis of the methylumbelliferyl β-glycoside of the type 2 A blood group tetrasaccharide in good yields is reported. Using this compound, we developed highly sensitive fluorescence-based high-throughput assays for both endo-β-galactosidase and α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase activity specific for the oligosaccharide structure of the blood group A antigen. We further demonstrate the potential to use this assay to screen the expressed gene products of metagenomic libraries in the search for efficient blood group antigen-cleaving enzymes.
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