Participation of glucose in the synthesis of glycoproteins in preimplantation mouse embryos

Electrophoretic separation of solubilized embryos incubated for 24 h in the presence of [U-14C]glucose indicated incorporation of glucose carbon into a number of protein bands. Treatment of nitrocellulose blots of electrophoretograms with glucosidases had no effect on incorporated counts, confirming that the labelled bands were not due to protein bound glycogen. Furthermore, addition of 0.1 microgram mL-1 tunicamycin to the incubation medium virtually eliminated incorporation of glucose into the protein bands but had no effect on the pattern or rate of incorporation of labelled amino acids in parallel experiments. Also the pattern of labelling of protein by glucose was reflected in the pattern of binding of Con A to the nitrocellulose blots. There were quantitative and qualitative changes in labelling as development progressed. For embryos cultured from the 2-cell stage, a small amount of label was incorporated in two major bands at relative mobility (Mr) 69 and 97 K. With culture from the 8-cell stage, three additional major bands (33, 44 and 56 K) were labelled. Embryos cultured from the morula stage showed a different profile of incorporation; there was much more active labelling, and eight major and a number of minor radioactive bands were identified. Whilst tunicamycin suppressed glucose incorporation into glycoproteins and inhibited compaction of embryos, it had little effect on other parameters of metabolism during incubation in its presence for 24 h. No significant effects of the metabolite on protein synthesis, glycogen storage, lactate production or overall macromolecular synthesis were evident. By contrast, the anabolic metabolism of embryos decompacted by long periods of exposure to tunicamycin was severely reduced although glycolysis was still unaffected. Amphomycin at very high concentration (500 micrograms mL-1) was toxic to embryos but at concentrations up to 250 micrograms mL-1 had no effect on compaction and development of blastocysts. Addition of monensin to the incubation medium [16 micrograms mL-1] did not interfere with the development of either 2-cell or 8-cell embryos to blastocysts.