The involvement of endogenous dolichol in the formation of lipid-linked precursors of glycoprotein in rat liver.

Endogenous dolichol was shown to function as a natural acceptor of mannose residues by using regenerating rat liver containing [(3)H]dolichol. When subcellular fractions from this liver were incubated with GDP-[(14)C]mannose a double-labelled lipid, which represented 30% of the total [(14)C]mannolipid, could be isolated. This lipid was shown to be identical with the dolichol phosphate mannose formed from exogenous dolichol phosphate, by chromatography, stability to alkali and by chemical cleavage to mannose and dolichol derivatives. It was formed by the rough endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria. If it is concerned in glycoprotein synthesis this would suggest that it functions in the formation of both secreted and mitochondrial glycoproteins. When both the dolichol and retinol of rat tissue were radioactive they made similar contributions to the synthesis of the lipid by liver microsomal fractions and intestinal epithelial cells.