1 Ghrelin O-acyltransferase interacts with extracellular peptides and exhibits unexpected cellular localization for a secretory pathway enzyme Maria B. Campaña, 1,%,# Tasha R. Davis, 1,# Elizabeth R. Cleverdon, 1,& Michael Bates, 2 Nikhila Krishnan, 2 Erin R. Curtis, 2,$ Marina D. Childs, 3 Yasandra Morales-Rodriguez, 1 Michelle A. Sieburg, 1 Heidi Hehnly, 2,4 Leonard G. Luyt, 3,5 and James L. Hougland 1,4, * 1 Department of Chemistry, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA 2 Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA 3 Department of Chemistry, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 2K7 4 BioInspired Syracuse, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244 5 Department of Oncology, and Department of Medical Imaging, London Regional Cancer Program, Lawson Health Research Institute, 800 Commissioners Road East, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5W9 # These authors contributed equally to this work % Current address: University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Denver, CO & Current address: St Jude Children’s Hospital, Memphis, TN $ Current address: Duke University, Durham, NC *To whom correspondence should be addressed: James L. Hougland Department of Chemistry Syracuse University 1-014 Center for Science and Technology Syracuse, NY, 13244, USA Tel: (315)-443-1134 Fax: (315)443-4070 Email: hougland@syr.edu Running title: GOAT binds extracellular ligands on the plasma membrane . CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license available under a was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made The copyright holder for this preprint (which this version posted June 1, 2021. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.01.446150 doi: bioRxiv preprint