RESUMO
Eisosomes define sites of plasma membrane organization. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, eisosomes delimit furrow-like plasma membrane invaginations that concentrate sterols, transporters, and signaling molecules. Eisosomes are static macromolecular assemblies composed of cytoplasmic proteins, most of which have no known function. In this study, we used a bioinformatics approach to analyze a set of 20 eisosome proteins. We found that the core components of eisosomes, paralogue proteins Pil1 and Lsp1, are distant homologues of membrane-sculpting Bin/amphiphysin/Rvs (BAR) proteins. Consistent with this finding, purified recombinant Pil1 and Lsp1 tubulated liposomes and formed tubules when the proteins were overexpressed in mammalian cells. Structural homology modeling and site-directed mutagenesis indicate that Pil1 positively charged surface patches are needed for membrane binding and liposome tubulation. Pil1 BAR domain mutants were defective in both eisosome assembly and plasma membrane domain organization. In addition, we found that eisosome-associated proteins Slm1 and Slm2 have F-BAR domains and that these domains are needed for targeting to furrow-like plasma membrane invaginations. Our results support a model in which BAR domain protein-mediated membrane bending leads to clustering of lipids and proteins within the plasma membrane.
Assuntos
Fosfoproteínas/química , Fosfoproteínas/metabolismo , Proteínas de Saccharomyces cerevisiae/química , Proteínas de Saccharomyces cerevisiae/metabolismo , Animais , Células COS , Proteínas de Transporte/química , Proteínas de Transporte/metabolismo , Membrana Celular/genética , Membrana Celular/metabolismo , Chlorocebus aethiops , Biologia Computacional/métodos , Citoplasma/metabolismo , Proteínas do Citoesqueleto , Lipossomos/metabolismo , Lipídeos de Membrana/metabolismo , Proteínas de Membrana/química , Proteínas de Membrana/genética , Proteínas de Membrana/metabolismo , Modelos Moleculares , Fosfoproteínas/genética , Estrutura Terciária de Proteína , Proteínas de Ligação a RNA/química , Proteínas de Ligação a RNA/metabolismo , Saccharomyces cerevisiae/genética , Saccharomyces cerevisiae/metabolismo , Proteínas de Saccharomyces cerevisiae/genéticaRESUMO
Glutathione transferases (GSTs) are believed to be a major detoxification system in helminths. We describe the expression and functional analysis of EgGST, a cytosolic GST from Echinococcus granulosus, related to the Mu-class of mammalian enzymes. EgGST was produced as an enzymatically active dimeric protein (rEgGST), with highest specific activity towards the standard substrate 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene (CDNB; 2.5 micromol min(-1)mg(-1)), followed by ethacrynic acid. Interestingly, rEgGST displayed glutathione peroxidase activity (towards cumene hydroperoxide), and conjugated reactive carbonyls (trans-2-nonenal and trans,trans-2,4-decadienal), indicating that it may intercept damaging products of lipid peroxidation. In addition, classical GST inhibitors (cybacron blue, triphenylthin chloride and ellagic acid) and a number of anthelmintic drugs (mainly, hexachlorophene and rafoxanide) were found to interfere with glutathione-conjugation to CDNB; suggesting that they may bind to EgGST. Considered globally, the functional properties of rEgGST are similar to those of putative orthologs from Echinococcus multilcularis and Taenia solium, the other medically important cestodes. Interestingly, our results also indicate that differences exist between these closely related cestode GSTs, which probably reflect specific biological functions of the molecules in each parasitic organism.
Assuntos
Echinococcus granulosus/enzimologia , Glutationa Transferase/genética , Glutationa Transferase/metabolismo , Aldeídos/metabolismo , Animais , Derivados de Benzeno/metabolismo , Dimerização , Dinitroclorobenzeno/metabolismo , Echinococcus granulosus/genética , Inibidores Enzimáticos/farmacologia , Ácido Etacrínico/metabolismo , Glutationa Peroxidase/metabolismo , Glutationa Transferase/química , Proteínas Recombinantes/química , Proteínas Recombinantes/genética , Proteínas Recombinantes/metabolismo , Especificidade por SubstratoRESUMO
The Aspergillus nidulans UapC protein is a high-affinity, moderate-capacity, uric acid-xanthine transporter, which also displays a low transport capacity for hypoxanthine, adenine, and guanine. It has been previously shown that a functional UapC-GFP fusion protein localises at the plasma membrane. Here, we demonstrate that ammonium, a preferred nitrogen source, dramatically changes the subcellular distribution of UapC. After addition of ammonium, UapC-GFP is removed from the plasma membrane and is concentrated into the vacuolar compartment. A chimeric gene construct in which an inducible promoter, insensitive to nitrogen repression, drives the expression of UapC-GFP, allowed us to demonstrate that the ammonium-dependent redistribution of UapC can be dissociated from the transcriptional repression of the gene. These results provide further support for the occurrence of endocytosis and the lysosomal-endosomal function of the vacuolar compartment in A. nidulans.