Cdc48/p97 and Shp1/p47 regulate autophagosome biogenesis in concert with ubiquitin-like Atg8

Cdc48/p97/VCP plays a ubiquitin-independent role during autophagosome formation in S. cerevisiae

The Adaptor Function of TRAPPC2 in Mammalian TRAPPs Explains TRAPPC2-Associated SEDT and TRAPPC9-Associated Congenital Intellectual Disability

Background: The TRAPP (Transport protein particle) complex is a conserved protein complex functioning at various steps in vesicle transport. Although yeast has three functionally and structurally distinct forms, TRAPPI, II and III, emerging evidence suggests that mammalian TRAPP complex may be different. Mutations in the TRAPP complex subunit 2 (TRAPPC2) cause X-linked spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia tarda, while mutations in the TRAPP complex subunit 9 (TRAPPC9) cause postnatal mental retardation with microcephaly. The structural interplay between these subunits found in mammalian equivalent of TRAPPI and those specific to TRAPPII and TRAPPIII remains largely unknown and we undertook the present study to examine the interaction between these subunits. Here, we reveal that the mammalian equivalent of the TRAPPII complex is structurally distinct from the yeast counterpart thus leading to insight into mechanism of disease. Principal Findings: We analyzed how TRAPPII- or TRAPPIII- specific subunits interact with the six-subunit core complex of TRAPP by co-immunoprecipitation in mammalian cells. TRAPPC2 binds to TRAPPII-specific subunit TRAPPC9, which in turn binds to TRAPPC10. Unexpectedly, TRAPPC2 can also bind to the putative TRAPPIII-specific subunit, TRAPPC8. Endogenous TRAPPC9-positive TRAPPII complex does not contain TRAPPC8, suggesting that TRAPPC2 binds to either TRAPPC9 or TRAPPC8 during the formation of the mammalian equivalents of TRAPPII or TRAPPIII, respectively. Therefore, TRAPPC2 serves as an adaptor for the formation of these complexes. A disease-causing mutation of TRAPPC2, D47Y, failed to interact with either TRAPPC9 or TRAPPC8, suggesting that aspartate 47 in TRAPPC2 is at or near the site of interaction with TRAPPC9 or TRAPPC8, mediating the formation of TRAPPII and/or TRAPPIII. Furthermore, disease-causing deletional mutants of TRAPPC9 all failed to interact with TRAPPC2 and TRAPPC10. Conclusions: TRAPPC2 serves as an adaptor for the formation of TRAPPII or TRAPPIII in mammalian cells. The mammalian equivalent of TRAPPII is likely different from the yeast TRAPPII structurally. © 2011 Zong et al.published_or_final_versio

Die Identifizierung und Charakterisierung sechs neuer ATG-Gene

Autophagy is a interacellular process; a cellular response to stress factors such as nitrogen deficiency. Autophagy is uniquely characterized by the formation of double membrane bound vesicles containing specific and nonspecific proteins and organelles. The outer autophagosomal membrane fuses with the vacuole/lysosome and an inner vesicles is released into the vacuolar lumen. There the inner membrane and its cargo are selectively degraded. The resulting peptides and lipids provide the cell with the material and energy it needs to survive. Using the yeast model Saccharomyces cerevisiae six novel autophagy related genes were identified in a reverse genetic screen. The ATG genes (ATG18, ATG21, ATG23, CCZ1, MON1 and TRS85) were characterized using molecular and biochemical techniques.Autophagozytose ist ein intrazellulärer Prozess. Die Autophagozytose ist eine zellulare Antwort auf Stressfaktoren, wie z.B. Stickstoffmangel. Autophagozytose ist durch die Formation von doppelmembran umhüllten Vesikeln gekennzeichnet. Diese Autophagosomen werden zur Vakuole/Lysosom transportiert, wo die äußere Membran mit der Vakuole verschmilzt. Die innere Membran wird in der Vakuole freigegeben und zusammen mit dem Inhalt selektiv abgebaut und umgesetzt. Die Abbauprodukte geben der Zelle die Bausteine und Energie, welche zum Überleben benötigt wird. Der Modellorganismus Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Bäckerhefe) wurde verwendet, um neue autophagozytose Gene zu identifizieren. Die ATG Gene (ATG18, ATG21, ATG23, CCZ1, MON1 und TRS85) wurden mit Hilfe von molekularbiologischen und biochemischen Verfahren charakterisiert

genehmigte Abhandlung

wird benötigt für die Zelldifferenzierung. Der Autophagozytose-Prozess produzier

Determination of four sequential stages during microautophagy in vitro.

Microautophagy is the transfer of cytosolic components into the lysosome by direct invagination of the lysosomal membrane and subsequent budding of vesicles into the lysosomal lumen. This process is topologically equivalent to membrane invagination during multivesicular body formation and to the budding of enveloped viruses. Vacuoles are lysosomal compartments of yeasts. Vacuolar membrane invagination can be reconstituted in vitro with purified yeast vacuoles, serving as a model system for budding of vesicles into the lumen of an organelle. Using this in vitro system, we defined different reaction states. We identified inhibitors of microautophagy in vitro and used them as tools for kinetic analysis. This allowed us to characterize four biochemically distinguishable steps of the reaction. We propose that these correspond to sequential stages of vacuole invagination and vesicle scission. Formation of vacuolar invaginations was slow and temperature-dependent, whereas the final scission of the vesicle from a preformed invagination was fast and proceeded even on ice. Our observations suggest that the formation of invaginations rather than the scission of vesicles is the rate-limiting step of the overall reaction

In yeast, loss of Hog1 leads to osmosensitivity of autophagy

In mammalian liver, proteolysis is regulated by the cellular hydration state in a microtubule- and p38(MAPK) (p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase)-dependent fashion. Osmosensing in liver cells towards proteolysis is achieved by activation of integrin receptors. The yeast orthologue of p38(MAPK) is Hog1 (high-osmolarity glycerol 1), which is involved in the hyperosmotic-response pathway. Since it is not known whether starvation-induced autophagy in yeast is osmosensitive and whether Hog1 is involved in this process, we performed fluorescence microscopy experiments. The hog1Δ cells exhibited a visible decrease of autophagy in hypo-osmotic and hyperosmotic nitrogen-starvation medium as compared with normo-osmolarity, as determined by GFP (green fluorescent protein)–Atg8 (autophagy-related 8) fluorescence. Western blot analysis of GFP–Atg8 degradation showed that WT (wild-type) cells maintained a stable autophagic activity over a broad osmolarity range, whereas hog1Δ cells showed an impaired autophagic actitivity during hypo- and hyper-osmotic stress. In [(3)H]leucine-pre-labelled yeast cells, the proteolysis rate was osmodependent only in hog1Δ cells. Neither maturation of pro-aminopeptidase I nor vitality was affected by osmotic stress in either yeast strain. In contrast, rapamycin-dependent autophagy, as measured by degradation of GFP–Atg8, did not significantly respond to hypo-osmotic or hyperosmotic stress in hog1Δ or WT cells. We conclude that Hog1 plays a role in the stabilization machinery of nitrogen-deprivation-induced autophagy in yeast cells during ambient osmolarity changes. This could be an analogy to the p38(MAPK) pathway in mammalian liver, where osmosensing towards p38(MAPK) is required for autophagy regulation by hypo-osmotic or amino-acid-induced cell swelling. A phenotypic difference is observed in rapamycin-induced autophagy, which does not seem to respond to extracellular osmolarity changes in hog1Δ cells