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J Biol Chem, Vol. 275, Issue 14, 9978-9985, April 7, 2000
From the Department of Experimental, Environmental Medicine and
Biotechnologies, Medical School, University of Milano-Bicocca,
Hospital S. Gerardo, 20052 Monza, Italy, the ¶ Department of
Medical Chemistry and Biochemistry and the § Institute
of Veterinary Physiology and CH-8092 Biochemistry, University of
Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy, and the After incubation of intact living cultured rat
cerebellar granule cells at 37 °C with a new GM1 ganglioside analog,
carrying a diazirine group and labeled with 125I in
the ceramide moiety, followed by photoactivation, a relatively small
number of radiolabeled proteins were detected in a membrane-enriched fraction. A protein of about 55 kDa with a pI of about 5 carried a
large portion of the radioactivity even if incubation and cross-linking were performed at 4 °C and in the presence of inhibitors of
endocytosis, suggesting that it is cross-linked at the plasma membrane.
Immunoprecipitation and Western blotting experiments showed the
positivity of this protein for tubulin. Trypsin treatment of intact
cells ruled out the involvement of a plasma membrane surface tubulin.
Release of radioactivity from cross-linked tubulin after KOH treatment (but not hydroxylamine treatment) suggested that the photoactivated ganglioside reacts with an ester-linked fatty acid anchor of tubulin. Low buoyancy, detergent-resistant membrane fractions, isolated from
cells after incubation with the GM1 analogue and photoactivation, proved their enrichment in endogenous and radioactive GM1 ganglioside, sphingomyelin, cholesterol, signal transduction proteins, and tubulin.
It is noteworthy that radioactive tubulin was also detected in this
fraction, indicating the presence of tubulin molecules carrying a fatty
acid anchor in detergent-resistant, ganglioside-enriched domains of the
plasma membrane. Parallel experiments carried out with a
phosphatidylcholine analogue, also carrying a diazirine group and
labeled with 125I in the fatty acid moiety, showed the
specificity of tubulin interaction with GM1. Taken together, these
results indicate that some tubulin molecules are associated with a
lipid anchor to detergent-resistant glycolipid-enriched domains of the
plasma membrane. This novel feature of membrane domains can provide a
key for a better understanding of their biological role.
Gangliosides are amphiphilic components of the plasma membrane of
vertebrate cells and are known to participate in a number of cell
surface-mediated events, such as cell-cell recognition processes,
modulation of cell growth and differentiation, receptor function, and
membrane-mediated transfer of information (1-5). This wide range of
functions is likely attributable to their membrane topology. In fact,
they are asymmetrically located in the outer leaflet of the plasma
membrane bilayer, with the oligosaccharide moiety exposed toward the
external medium and the ceramide portion embedded in the hydrophobic
core of the bilayer. Therefore, they are available to interact either
with membrane-associated molecules or with external ligands. As a
matter of fact, the occurrence of ganglioside-protein interaction has
been reported (6-9).
Another peculiar feature of glycolipids is their enrichment Owing to their peculiar membrane distribution, interaction of
glycolipids with specific proteins of domains is expected. However, despite the reported co-segregation of glycolipids and specific proteins inside domains (14-16), proof of their direct interaction has
not been provided, with the exception of caveolin in caveolae (17).
Among the tools utilized to investigate the interaction with
membrane-associated proteins, photoactivable radioactive analogs of
lipids, gangliosides included, which are able to covalently cross-link
and thus radiolabel neighboring molecules upon illumination, have been
repeatedly used (17-23). In the present investigation, we used this
approach in order to identify proteins interacting with gangliosides in
neurons, in which these glycosphingolipids are particularly abundant
(24), but in which the role of domains has been only partially
investigated (13). For this purpose, cultured rat cerebellar granule
cells were utilized, coupled with the use of a new GM1 ganglioside
analog, TID-GM1,1 carrying a
photoactivable diazirine group and labeled with 125I in the
ceramide moiety.
Chemicals--
The reagents used (analytical grade) and high
performance TLC plates (Kieselgel 60) were purchased from Merck GmbH
(Darmstadt, Germany). Modified Eagle's basal medium; fetal calf serum;
trypsin; CAPS; MES; and antibodies against Cell Cultures--
Granule cells, obtained from the cerebella of
8-day-old Harlan Sprague-Dawley rats (Charles River, Milan, Italy),
were prepared and cultured as described (28, 29). Morphological
differentiation of granule cells in culture was followed by microscopic
examination, and cell viability was monitored with fluorescein
diacetate and propidium iodide (30). The experiments were performed
with cells cultured for 8 days in vitro. The protein content
was determined by the method of Lowry et al. (31).
Chemical Synthesis of Photoactivable,
125I-Labeled GM1 Ganglioside (TID-GM1) and of
Photoactivable, 125I-Labeled Phosphatidylcholine
(TID-PC)--
For the preparation of TID-PC, the procedure previously
described (32) has been followed. The final specific radioactivity was
2000 Ci/mmol, and the radiochemical purity, assessed by TLC using
different solvent systems followed by autoradiography, was over
98%.
The new photoactivable radioactive GM1 ganglioside analog, TID-GM1,
carrying a
9-[[[2-[125I]iodo-4-((trifluoromethyl)-3H-diazirin-3-yl)benzyl]oxy]carbonyl]nonanoyl-fatty acyl residue in substitution of the native fatty acid present in the
ceramide moiety was synthesized relying on procedures previously described (32, 33), adapted for the synthesis of this particular glycolipid. The procedure is summarized here. First, the carboxylic acid function of
9-[[[2-tributylstannyl-4-(trifluoromethyl-3H-diazirin-3-yl)-benzyl]oxy]carbonyl]nonanoic acid (32) was activated by formation of the
N-hydroxysuccinimide ester, following the procedure
described for the corresponding propanoic acid
N-hydroxysuccinimide ester (32). The activated ester was
purified by silica gel column chromatography using ether/hexane (3:1;
v/v). The fractions containing the product (Rf of
hydroxysuccinimide ester = 0.32) were subjected to TLC using the
same solvent system. After elution from the gel and evaporation of the
solvent, the colorless oily hydroxysuccinimide ester (90% yield) was
obtained. Next, 6 µmol of lyso-GM1, prepared as described in Ref. 33,
were N-acylated using an excess (21 µmol) of the hydroxysuccinimide ester in 250 µl of THF, 6 µl of
N-methylmorpholine, and 5 µl of H2O. The
initial suspension was stirred overnight at 40 °C, until a clear
solution was obtained. The reaction mixture was subjected to
preparative TLC (silica gel) using chloroform/methanol/water, 60:35:4
(v/v/v), as the solvent system. The main band (having and
Rf value almost identical to that of standard GM1 ganglioside) was eluted from the gel using the same solvent system. The
material was further purified by gel filtration using a column of
Sephadex LH20 (1.5 × 40 cm) equilibrated and eluted with
CH2Cl2/methanol (1:3) (v/v). Fractions
containing the stannylated photoactivable ganglioside were identified
by analytical TLC (detection by UV fluorescence quenching). Finally,
stannylated photoactivable GM1 was subjected to radioiododestannylation
following the protocol reported for various lipid analogues (32).
Briefly, to a solution of photoactivable GM1 (20-50 nmol) in 20 µl
of glacial acetic acid, 5 mCi of Na125I (IMS-300; Amersham
Pharmacia Biotech) and 5 µl of peracetic acid were added. After 2 min, the reaction was quenched by the addition of 20 µl of 100 mM sodium iodide and, after additional 2 min, of 100 µl
of 10% sodium bisulfite solution. The reaction mixture was diluted
with water (1 ml) and applied to a Sep-Pak Plus C18
Cartridge (Waters, Milford, MA). After elution of salts and free
radioactivity with water, TID-GM1 was eluted from the column with
methanol. The specific radioactivity of the material was estimated to
be >100 Ci/mmol. Its radiochemical purity was assessed by TLC, using
different solvent systems followed by autoradiography, and was >98%.
Samples were photolyzed using a UV lamp (300 W, Jelosyl, Milan, Italy).
In order to define the time needed for photolysis of the TID reagents,
a 10 Treatment of Granule Cells with TID-GM1 and Cross-linking
Experiments--
Cells plated in 10-cm dishes were washed with
Locke's solution and incubated for 2 h at 37° °C, or for
4 h at 4 °C, with 2.5 ml of the same solution containing
10
In other experiments, after cell incubation with TID-GM1 at 4 °C and
irradiation, cells were treated for 5 min at 37 °C with trypsin
(0.1% in 2 ml of phosphate-buffered saline solution) (36).
At the end of the treatments, cells were washed twice with Locke's
solution; scraped in 2.5 ml of a solution containing 250 mM
sucrose, 0.1 mM EDTA, and 1 mM chymostatin,
leupeptin, antipapain, and pepstatin protease inhibitor mixture (37) in
1 mM potassium phosphate buffer, pH 7.4; and finally
centrifuged (8000 × g for 10 min). The pellet was
homogenized and centrifuged (1000 × g for 10 min)
three times in the same buffer, and the pooled supernatants were
centrifuged at 100000 × g for 1 h. The pellet
obtained, from now on called the "membrane-enriched fraction," was
used for further analysis (38).
Treatment of Granule Cells with TID-PC and Cross-linking
Experiments--
Cells plated in 10-cm dishes were washed with
Locke's solution and incubated for 2 h at 4 °C with 2.5 ml of
the same solution containing 2 × 10 2D Gel Electrophoresis of the Membrane-enriched
Fractions--
The membrane-enriched fractions were subjected to lipid
extraction (25). The delipidized pellet was solubilized in a proper buffer (39), and 2D gel analysis was performed using the Bio-Rad Mini-protean II 2D system according to the manufacturer's
recommendations, except for the first dimension mixture, which was
prepared as described (39). 10% gels were used for the second
dimension. Radioactive spots were detected using Phosphorus Imager
(Bio-Rad) and then subjected to autoradiography. The total protein
pattern was assessed by silver staining. 30 µg (as protein) were
used for each sample.
Immunoprecipitation Experiments--
Aliquots of the
membrane-enriched fraction were suspended at 37 °C for 20 min in 500 µl of lysis buffer (25 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.4; 150 mM NaCl; 1% Triton X-100; 0.1% gelatin; and 0.1%
chymostatin, leupeptin, antipapain, and pepstatin mixture). The lysate
was successively incubated at 4 °C for 2 h with mouse anti- Preparation and Characterization of Detergent-resistant Membrane
Fraction (DRF)--
Cells (60 × 106), some after
incubation with TID-GM1 or with TID-PC and illumination, were harvested
in Locke's solution and incubated in 2 ml of 1%Triton X-100 in 25 mM MES buffer, pH 6.5, containing 150 mM NaCl,
1 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, and 75 units/ml
aprotinin, for 30 min on ice. The cell lysate was subjected to
discontinuous sucrose density gradient centrifugation, for the
separation of low density DRF, as described (40). 1.2-ml fractions were
collected from the gradient and subjected to radioactivity counting.
Fraction 4 (DRF) and high density membrane fraction (HDF) (pool of
fractions 8-10) were assayed for lipid and protein content, as follows.
Lipids--
DRF and HDF were dialyzed against distilled water at
4 °C and then lyophilized. Lipids were extracted according to Ref.
41, with slight modifications, as described in Ref. 42. The lipids of
the organic phases were separated by high performance TLC (solvent system chloroform/methanol/acetic acid/H2O, 60:45:4:2,
v/v/v/v) and revealed with I2. For cholesterol
visualization, the extracted lipid samples were separated by high
performance TLC (solvent system hexane/diethylether/acetic acid,
20:35:1, v/v/v) and then sprayed with anisaldehyde reagent. Cholesterol
was detected by heating the plate at 180 °C for 15 min. For
detection and quantification of GM1, TLC separation, blotting with
horseradish peroxidase-labeled cholera toxin B subunit, ECL detection,
and quantification of GM1 were performed as described (9).
Proteins--
DRF and HDF were subjected to trichloroacetic acid
precipitation. The pellet washed with acetone was suspended in water
for protein assay and then subjected to gel electrophoresis (EF). For
detection of proteins by Western blotting, samples were suspended in
Laemmli buffer containing 1% 2-mercaptoethanol, heated at 100 °C
and resolved by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (10% acrylamide, 7 µg/lane) followed by Western blotting that was carried out as follows. Proteins were transferred to nitrocellulose membranes. Blots were incubated overnight at 4 °C in TBST (20 mM
Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 150 mM NaCl, 0.1% Tween 20) containing
5% (w/v) dry skimmed milk. After washing with TBST, membranes were
incubated at room temperature for 3 h with the primary antibody
diluted in TBST/milk (anti-
In separate experiments, an aliquot (8 µg as protein) of the pellet
obtained from fraction 4 (DRF) was subjected to 2D-EF, as described for
the membrane-enriched fractions, and subjected to silver staining.
Another aliquot, after 2D-EF, was transferred to polyvinylidene
difluoride membrane and subjected to Western blotting and ECL
detection, as described above, with the exception that a mixture of
anti- Hydroxylamine and KOH Treatment--
The immunoprecipitate
obtained from the membrane-enriched fraction using a mixture of
anti- Assessment of the Specific Radioactivity of Tubulin in the
Membrane-enriched and Detergent-resistant Fraction--
Two aliquots
of the membrane-enriched and of the detergent-resistant fraction were
subjected to immunoprecipitation using a mixture of anti- Sequence Determination and Computer Analysis--
Automated
sequence analysis was performed on a pulsed-liquid sequencer (model
477, Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA) equipped with a 120A Applied
Biosystems PTH analyzer. Homologies with the entries in the
nonredundant GenBankTM were searched using the BLAST
program (44).
After cell incubation with TID-GM1 for 2 h at 37 °C,
145 ± 2.5 pmol of probe/mg of protein were bound to granule
cells. A parallel experiment performed with isotopically labeled
[3H]GM1 (45) gave very similar figures (138 ± 1.9 pmol/mg of protein), indicating that the association of the two
molecules was comparable. After illumination of cells with UV light,
inducing cross-linking of TID-GM1 with neighboring molecules, a
membrane-enriched fraction was prepared. Autoradiography of the 2D-EF
of this fraction (Fig. 1A)
showed the presence of a relatively small number of radiolabeled proteins, compared with those present in a 2D-EF after silver staining
(Fig. 1C). The main radioactive spots corresponded to proteins with masses of about 55 and 30 kDa, with pI values of about
5.
The experiment was repeated carrying out the incubation at 4 °C.
After 4 h of incubation, 20 ± 0.18 pmol of TID-GM1/mg of protein were bound to granule cells. After photoactivation, the membrane-enriched fraction was prepared, and 2D-EF was carried out. A
lesser number of radiolabeled proteins (Fig. 1B) were
detected in comparison with the experiment carried out at 37 °C. The
major radioactive spots were again corresponding to proteins of about 55- (from now on called P55) and 30-kDa mass. A nearly identical radiolabeling pattern was observed when cell incubation with TID-GM1 was carried out at 4 °C in the presence of inhibitors of
endocytosis, nocodazole, or colchicine (data not shown).
In the 2D-EF of the membrane-enriched fraction after silver staining, a
major spot, apparently due to at least two proteins partially
overlapping and having electrophoretic characteristics similar to P55,
was present. This major spot, after transfer to PDVF membrane, elution,
and amino acid sequencing, showed its identity with In order to verify this hypothesis, immunoprecipitation experiments
were performed. For this purpose, the membrane-enriched fraction,
prepared after cell incubation with TID-GM1 and photoactivation at
4 °C, was lysed at 37 °C and immunoprecipitation carried out using monoclonal antibodies against In order to test the specificity of interaction between TID-GM1 and
P55, parallel experiments were performed, in which TID-PC was used
instead of the photoactivable ganglioside. After incubation at 4 °C
for 2 h, 1 ± 0.2 pmol of phospholipid/mg of protein were bound to cells. The pattern of radiolabeled proteins was different from
that obtained with TID-GM1 (the autoradiography of the 2D-EF of the
membrane-enriched fraction is reported in Fig.
3).
In further experiments, intact living cells were incubated with TID-GM1
and, after photoactivation, treated with trypsin. The membrane-enriched
fraction was prepared, and 2D-EF was performed. As reported in Fig.
4, P55 was still present after this
treatment. Immunoprecipitation experiments using monoclonal antibodies
(Fig. 4B) demonstrated that the main tubulin isoforms
present were
Successively, the susceptibility of P55 to NH2-OH or to
methanolic KOH treatment was assessed in order to establish whether or
not the cross-linking is occurring with a lipid anchor of the protein
(43). The results, reported in Fig. 5,
show that NH2-OH treatment did not cause substantial loss
of radioactivity from P55, whereas approximately 90% of radioactivity
was released after treatment with KOH. No effect was exerted by a mere
treatment with methanol.
Further experiments were performed in order to investigate the
involvement of DRF in the interaction between GM1 and tubulin. Cells
were treated with Triton X-100 at low temperature and spun on a sucrose
gradient, and 1.2-ml fractions of the gradient were assayed for
radioactivity, protein content, and lipid content. The low density
fraction (fraction 4), located at the 5-30% sucrose interface and
corresponding to the DRF (40), displayed the highest GM1 enrichment,
almost mirroring the distribution of TID-GM1 associated to the cells
(Fig. 6A). On the contrary,
TID-PC was mostly localized outside the DRF, within the HDF.
A comparison between DRF and HDF showed a higher proportion of
sphingomyelin in the detergent resistant-fraction (Fig. 6B). Moreover, DRF was also enriched in cholesterol (Fig. 6C).
Western blotting experiments showed that the DRF, always compared with the HDF, was enriched in signal transduction-related molecules such as
Fyn, GAP-43, and G
On the other hand, a comparison of the DRF (Fig.
8A) and the membrane-enriched
fraction (Fig. 1C) showed that the protein pattern, detected
by silver staining, was much simpler in the detergent resistant
fraction. The presence of tubulin in this fraction was confirmed by
Western blotting (Fig. 8B). Simple calculations based upon
densitometric quantification of the protein bands visible in the two
gels indicated that the proportion of tubulin over the total proteins
in the DRF (about 18%) was higher than in the membrane-enriched
fraction (about 7%). Next, the specific radioactivity of tubulin in
the membrane-enriched and in detergent-resistant fraction was assessed,
relying on the amount of radioactivity associated and on the amount of
tubulin (as protein) in each fraction. Control experiments showed that
under the conditions required for tubulin detection by ECL, the film
utilized was not sensitized by the low amount of radioactivity
associated to the protein. The specific radioactivity of tubulin was
2.1 arbitrary units in the DRF and 0.28 arbitrary units in the
membrane-enriched fraction.
In the present investigation the GM1 ganglioside analog, TID-GM1, carrying a photoactivable diazirine group and labeled with 125I in the ceramide moiety, has been utilized for the detection of interacting proteins in cultured neurons. The main features of these analogs are the ability to form covalent bonds with neighboring proteins upon photoactivation, their extremely high specific radioactivity, and, in the absence of UV light, their remarkable stability under a range of different chemical and physical conditions (32). After incubation of cerebellar granule cells with TID-GM1 at 37 °C and photoactivation, a series of proteins become radiolabeled, indicating their proximity to the probe. Clues about the localization of these proteins were obtained performing incubation and successive photoactivation at 4 °C. In fact, at this temperature, ganglioside internalization is prevented (46-48), and therefore TID-GM1/protein cross-linking at the plasma membrane is privileged. A protein (P55) with a mass of about 55 kDa and another of about 30 kDa and a pI of about 5 were radiolabeled under all of the experimental conditions adopted. A further confirmation of their cross-linking at the plasma membrane was obtained by experiments carried out with TID-GM1 in the presence of inhibitors of endocytosis (34, 35) and at low temperature, excluding the possibility that part of the probe is endocytosed and interacts with intracellular proteins. Our attention was attracted by P55 because it displayed electrophoretic features similar to those of tubulin, present as a major spot and recognized by amino acid sequencing in the endogenous protein pattern of the membrane-enriched fraction. Immunoprecipitation and Western blotting experiments showed that P55 is
indeed the product of cross-linking between the photoactivated ganglioside and Taken together, these results suggest that TID-GM1 cross-links tubulin at the plasma membrane of cerebellar granule cells. Even if microtubules, in which tubulin is the main component, are intracellular structures and gangliosides are typical membrane components, their apparent interaction has an explanation in the long known existence of membrane-associated tubulin (49-53). However, the topology of membrane tubulin is not completely understood. For instance, it has been postulated that tubulin-like, trypsin-sensitive proteins can be present at the cell surface in neurons (54). It has also been suggested that membrane-associated tubulin is an integral membrane protein (50, 51). Other investigations claim that its hydrophobicity arises from the interaction with other membrane components (52). Recently, Caron (53) showed that tubulin is palmitoylated and ascribed its hydrophobic behavior at least in part to this feature. Experiments with trypsin, to which P55 was resistant, on the one hand ruled out that cross-linking was occurring with tubulin at the plasma membrane surface, and on the other hand gave additional information. In fact, cell-associated exogenous gangliosides that are not removed by trypsin treatment (the so-called trypsin-stable form of ganglioside association with cells) are considered to be correctly inserted with the ceramide moiety in the hydrophobic core of the bilayer (55). Because the ganglioside photoactivable group is located at the end of the ceramide fatty acid moiety, these results indicate that ganglioside-tubulin interaction is taking place within the hydrophobic core of the plasma membrane bilayer. Therefore, we inspected the possibility that TID-GM1 was cross-linked with a lipid anchor of tubulin. In this case, a release of radioactivity from P55 would occur after treatment with hydroxylamine or KOH, which are able to selectively remove different protein lipid anchors (43). On the contrary, if cross-linking was occurring with an amino acid residue of the protein, the radioactivity would be retained. The experiments showed that the radioactivity was released only by KOH, consistent with the hypothesis that upon photoactivation, TID-GM1 is cross-linked with a fatty acid anchor that is linked with an ester-linkage to membrane-associated tubulin. As a further step, we investigated the possible involvement of specialized domains of the neuronal plasma membrane. In fact, in recent years, substantial progress has been made in understanding the biological role of glycolipid-enriched, detergent-resistant membrane domains in eukaryotic cells (11, 35, 56). However, the neuron, which perhaps represents one of the greatest challenges to research on membrane traffic and function, has only been partially investigated (13, 42, 57). Therefore, we prepared DRF from a lysate of cerebellar granule cells after incubation with TID-GM1 and cross-linking. This fraction was found to be enriched in endogenous GM1 (and TID-GM1), sphingomyelin, and cholesterol, in analogy with other cellular systems (10, 11, 13). Also signal transduction molecules were enriched in DRF, again in analogy with other neuronal and nonneuronal cell types (10-12, 42, 58). Although the bulk of cytoskeleton proteins were localized within the HDF, some of them were also detected in trace amounts in DRF. This finding is somewhat expected, because the presence of actin, in particular, in membrane domains has been already reported (11, 59). However, the neuronal microtubule-associated protein Tau (60) was not detected in DRF, reducing the possibility of a mere contamination of DRF by the cytoskeleton. According to the above reported results, tubulin in DRF is present in very small amounts in comparison with HDF, which contains the bulk of cell tubulin. On the contrary, upon comparison of DRF with membrane-enriched fractions (which contain all of the tubulin associated to the membrane), it turns out that membrane tubulin is enriched in detergent-resistant membrane domains. Next, we assessed the presence of radioactive, GM1-cross-linked, tubulin within DRF. Radioactive tubulin was detected, indicating that ganglioside-enriched detergent-resistant domains do contain lipid-anchored tubulin. The presence of lipid-anchored tubulin in DRF could explain why cell treatment with nocodazole does not affect the protein cross-linking with TID-GM1; in fact, it is conceivable that tubulin molecules associated to the membrane with their lipid anchor are insensitive to this microtubule-depolimerizing drug. However, the evaluation of this hypothesis deserves further investigation. The specificity of the interaction between tubulin and TID-GM1 could be
debated. In this particular case, at least two types of specificity may
be involved: (a) tubulin interaction with ganglioside with
respect to other lipids, and (b) TID-GM1 interaction with DRF tubulin in comparison with tubulin in the bulk membrane. Concerning the first type, experiments were carried out with the
phosphatidylcholine analogue TID-PC. TID-PC was localized in the bulk
membrane, and cross-linking experiments suggested that tubulin
interacts specifically with GM1. Concerning the second type of
interaction (of GM1 with DRF tubulin in comparison with tubulin in the
bulk membrane) the higher specific radioactivity in DRF suggests that
TID-GM1 is more specific toward tubulin associated with domains.
However, this latter interaction is unlikely to be driven by a mutual
recognition, because it is occurring between lipids (ganglioside
ceramide moiety and palmitoyl residues of the protein). Instead, the
apparent interaction likely depends on co-segregation and enrichment of both molecules The functional implications of the presence of lipid-anchored tubulin within detergent-resistant domains could be debated. First, it is likely that such localization is important for structural remodeling of the plasma membrane, as it occurs during cell mitosis or axon extension in neurons. Glycolipid-enriched domains could play a key role as sites where microtubules, via lipid-anchored tubulin, come into contact with the plasma membrane and contribute to physically driving its changes. Second, the presence of lipid-anchored tubulin within DRF could play a role in signal transduction. In fact, domains are enriched in signal-transducing molecules, G-protein families included (10-12), and it is known that tubulin is involved in G-protein-mediated signal transduction in a variety of systems (61). The interaction between these two protein families inside domains can affect signal transduction. GM1-tubulin interactions may participate in the modulation of this process. In conclusion, herein we have shown that some tubulin molecules
are associated with a lipid anchor to detergent-resistant glycolipid-enriched domains of the plasma membrane. This novel feature
of glycolipid-enriched domains increases the evidence of their proven
or postulated participation in a series of important cell functions
(10-12) and provides a key for a better understanding of their
biological role in the plasma membrane.
* This work was supported by Grant Cofin 1998 from Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica (Rome, Italy) (to M. M.) and Grant CT98.00488.CT04.115.33097 from the CNR (Rome, Italy) (to P. P.).The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. The article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
The abbreviations used are: TID-GM1, 9-[[[2-[125I]iodo-4-((trifluoromethyl)-3H-diazirin-3-yl)benzyl]oxy]carbonyl]nonanoyl-GM1 ganglioside; CAPS, 3-(cyclohexylamino)-1-propanelsulfonic acid; DRF, detergent-resistant membrane fraction; HDF, high density membrane fraction; MES, 2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid; TID-PC, (1-O-dodecanoyl-2-O-(9-[[[2-(125I)iodo-4-(trifluoromethyl-3H-diazirin-3-yl)-benzyl]oxy] carbonyl] nonanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine; 2D, two-dimensional; EF, gel electrophoresis; PAGE, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.
Copyright © 2000 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc. This article has been cited by other articles:
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