NSF Award
9118775
Glycophorins are among the best studied mammalian integral membrane proteins, and yet, very little is known about their functions or about the regulation of expression of variant glycophorin forms. This research will focus primarily on the development of approaches to the study of expression and function of glycophorin. A transfection system will be developed for high levels of cell surface expression of the introduced gene in NIH/3T3 cells. The establishment of such a system will make it possible to test hypothesized roles of sialoglycoproteins in the cell. The long term goal of this project is to establish more detailed information on the basic biology of glycophorins as membrane proteins. Glycophorins are collectively the major class of sialoglycoprotein on the surface of mature red blood cells, and are extremely well characterized in terms of protein and carbohydrate chemistry. Glycophorin has been implicated as a factor in a number of diseases (e.g., as the receptor for entry of malaria parasites into the erythrocyte). Surprisingly, very little is known of its function(s) in the cell. These studies, if successful, will pave the way toward understanding the biology of glycophorins.
