A Novel Motif Identified in Dependence Receptors

Programmed cell death signaling is a critical feature of development, cellular turnover, oncogenesis, and neurodegeneration, among other processes. Such signaling may be transduced via specific receptors, either following ligand binding—to death receptors—or following the withdrawal of trophic ligands—from dependence receptors. Although dependence receptors display functional similarities, no common structural domains have been identified. Therefore, we employed the Multiple Expectation Maximization for Motif Elicitation and the Motif Alignment and Search Tool software programs to identify a novel transmembrane motif, dubbed dependence-associated receptor transmembrane (DART) motif, that is common to all described dependence receptors. Of 3,465 human transmembrane proteins, 25 (0.7%) display the DART motif. The predicted secondary structure features an alpha helical structure, with an unusually high percentage of valine residues. At least four of the proteins undergo regulated intramembrane proteolysis. To date, we have not identified a function for this putative domain. We speculate that the DART motif may be involved in protein processing, interaction with other proteins or lipids, or homomultimerization

The SNARE Ykt6 mediates protein palmitoylation during an early stage of homotypic vacuole fusion

The NSF homolog Sec18 initiates fusion of yeast vacuoles by disassembling cis-SNARE complexes during priming. Sec18 is also required for palmitoylation of the fusion factor Vac8, although the acylation machinery has not been identified. Here we show that the SNARE Ykt6 mediates Vac8 palmitoylation and acts during a novel subreaction of vacuole fusion. This subreaction is controlled by a Sec17-independent function of Sec18. Our data indicate that Ykt6 presents Pal-CoA via its N-terminal longin domain to Vac8, while transfer to Vac8's SH4 domain occurs spontaneously and not enzymatically. The conservation of Ykt6 and its localization to several organelles suggest that its acyltransferase activity may also be required in other intracellular fusion events

The dimeric transmembrane domain of prolyl dipeptidase DPP-IV contributes to its quaternary structure and enzymatic activities

Dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP-IV) is a drug target in the treatment of human type II diabetes. It is a type II membrane protein with a single transmembrane domain (TMD) anchoring the extracellular catalytic domain to the membrane. DPP-IV is active as a dimer, with two dimer interacting surfaces located extracellularly. In this study, we demonstrate that the TM of DPP-IV promotes DPP-IV dimerization and rescues monomeric DPP-IV mutants into partial dimers, which is specific and irreplaceable by TMs of other type II membrane proteins. By bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) and peptide electrophoresis, we found that the TM domain of DPP-IV is dimerized in mammalian cells and in vitro. The TM dimer interaction is very stable, based on our results with TM site-directed mutagenesis. None of the mutations, including the introduction of two prolines, resulted in their complete disruption to monomers. However, these TM proline mutations result in a significant reduction of DPP-IV enzymatic activity, comparable to what is found with mutations near the active site. A systematic analysis of TM structures deposited in the Protein Data Bank showed that prolines in the TM generally produce much bigger kinking angles than occur in nonproline-containing TMs. Thus, the proline-dependent reduction in enzyme activity may result from propagated conformational changes from the TM to the extracellular active site. Our results demonstrate that TM dimerization and conformation contribute significantly to the structure and activity of DPP-IV. Optimal enzymatic activity of DPP-IV requires an optimal interaction of all three dimer interfaces, including its TM