Oligomeric gastric mucin was isolated from the fundic part of the rat stomach. Previously we have shown by biochemical analysis that this oligomeric mucin consists of disulphide-linked homo-oligomers, which contain no other covalently attached proteins [Dekker, Aelmans & Strous (1991) Biochem. J. 277, 423-427]. Electron-microscopic images of the oligomeric mucin revealed a heterogenous population of long filamentous molecules of 300-3000 nm length. After reduction and carboxymethylation the monomeric mucins displayed a length distribution with a single peak at about 279 nm. Length-distribution analysis of oligomeric molecules with length up to 1000 nm revealed three subpopulations with one, two or three times the length of the monomeric mucin. The oligomers displayed small globular domains of about 15 nm, which were equally spaced along the molecule9s length. As the distance between these globular domains was similar to the monomer length, these domains most likely indicate attachment sites of the monomers. These results show that the mucin monomers attached end-to-end in the oligomer. Biosynthesis of the mucin oligomers was studied by labelling of stomach explants in vitro with [35S]methionine, [3H]galactose or [35S]sulphate and subsequent immunoprecipitation of the mucin with a specific antiserum. Analysis by electrophoresis and gel filtration revealed that the oligomerization takes place by formation of disulphide bonds between the 300 kDa mucin precursors. The mucin was exclusively synthesized and secreted as fully glycosylated oligomers, as neither precursor proteins nor monomeric mucin were detected in the culture medium. A model for the biosynthesis of rat gastric mucin is proposed in which the filamentous mucin monomers are linked end-to-end by disulphide bonds.
