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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 277, Issue 49, 47436-47443, December 6, 2002
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From the
Division of Molecular Cell Biology,
Department of Biology, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1050 Blindern,
N-0316 Oslo, Norway and the § Institute for Biochemistry II,
University of Göttingen, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 12, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Received for publication, July 17, 2002, and in revised form, October 2, 2002
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ABSTRACT |
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Cytoplasmic tails of LIMPII and the invariant
chain contain similar leucine-based sorting signals, but the invariant
chain interacts only with AP1 and AP2, whereas LIMPII interacts
strongly with AP3. In a series of in vitro experiments, we
investigated the effect of residues upstream of the leucine pairs and
demonstrated that these residues determine adapter binding, and certain
residues favor interactions with AP3. Furthermore, constructs that
interacted stronger with AP3 interacted weakly with AP1 and vice
versa. Exchanging residues upstream of the leucine-based signal
in LIMPII with those of the invariant chain reduced LIMPII binding to
AP3 in vitro, and in vivo the corresponding
LIMPII mutant was rerouted via the plasma membrane like the invariant
chain. These preferential interactions of different leucine signals
with different AP complexes may thus be the determining step sorting
proteins from the trans-Golgi network to their final
destinations. Proteins that interact with AP3 are sorted directly to
endosomes/lysosomes, whereas proteins that interact with AP1 are sorted
via a different route. At the same time, constructs that exhibited
specificity for either AP1 or AP3 might still interact with AP2,
suggesting that AP2 may recognize a wider variety of leucine signals.
This is consistent with the suggested role of AP2 in
internalization of proteins containing general leucine-based signals,
including proteins that have been missorted to the plasma membrane.
The adaptor protein complexes
(APs)1 AP1, AP2, AP3, and AP4
are important components of the intracellular sorting machinery. They
associate with transport vesicles along the secretory and endocytic
pathways and can interact with membrane proteins that contain signals
for sorting into the appropriate transport vesicles (1, 2). Each AP
contains four polypeptides, called adaptins: two large chains of ~100
kDa, a medium chain of ~50 kDa, and a small chain of ~25 kDa. AP1
complexes are associated with transport clathrin-coated vesicles (CCVs)
derived from the trans-Golgi network (TGN), AP2 complexes
are associated with the endocytic CCVs, whereas the functional
localization of AP3 and AP4 is not clear yet. It seems, however, that
AP3 mediates sorting to lysosomes and related organelles and mediates
sorting on endosomes, whereas AP4 has been implicated in basolateral
sorting (3-9).
Two best characterized types of protein-sorting signals are tyrosine-
and leucine-based sorting signals (see Refs. 2, 3, and 10). It is
believed that interactions between sorting signals and AP complexes is
one of the determining steps in protein sorting, namely the
sequestration of cargo membrane proteins into a specific type of
transport vesicle for delivery to its intermediate or final
destination. Interactions between various sorting signals and AP
complexes have been demonstrated in a variety of experimental systems
(reviewed in Refs. 1 and 11). All APs seem to recognize tyrosine-sorting signals via their respective medium chain, are associated with specific populations of transport vesicles, and confer
distinct sorting properties onto these vesicles (1, 3). Interactions
between AP complexes and leucine signals were studied less extensively,
and different AP subunits have been reported to interact with leucine
signals. Kirchhausen and co-workers (12) has reported interactions
between several leucine signals and a large ( Two molecules containing leucine-sorting signals are of particular
interest for this study: the invariant chain (Ii) and lysosomal integral membrane protein II (LIMPII). Ii is a type II transmembrane protein associated with the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). It is believed that Ii has
a multitude of functions that aid MHC class II in antigen presentation.
Two of the main functions are to prevent endogenous polypeptides from
binding to the MHC class II groove and mediate the sorting of the MHC
class II to the endosomes either directly or via the plasma membrane
(16-18). Ii carries two leucine-sorting signals within its cytoplasmic
tail, the membrane-distal signal (LI residues in positions 7 and 8),
and the membrane-proximal signal (ML residues at positions 16 and 17).
Ii is sorted to endosomes via the plasma membrane, and either signal is
independently sufficient for endosomal localization of Ii (19, 20).
LIMPII is a type III transmembrane protein, and has one leucine signal
in its 20-amino acid cytoplasmic tail. This signal is necessary and
sufficient for direct sorting of LIMPII to endosomes/lysosomes (10,
21).
It has previously been shown that sorting signals from Ii interact
in vitro with AP1 and AP2, but not to AP3, which is
consistent with the in vivo sorting of Ii to endosomes
indirectly via the plasma membrane (15). On the other hand, the
LI-motif of LIMPII preferentially binds to AP3 and in addition to this
in vitro observation, LIMPII is known to be sorted to
endosomes/lysosomes via a direct transport route. which does not
include appearance at the cell surface (10, 21). Because leucine-based
motifs of Ii and LIMPII appear to be remarkably similar to each other
(leucine pair and double acidic residues in the positions DNA Constructs--
For the in vitro studies, the
cytoplasmic tails of the wild type Ii (Met1 to
Arg30) and its various mutants and wild type LIMPII
(Gly460 to Thr478) and its various mutants (see
Fig. 1) were made by PCR from the cytoplasmic tail of both of the
proteins. They were then fused in-frame to the C terminus of the GST
protein using BamHI and EcoRI sites in pGEX-2T
vector (Amersham Biosciences). For the in vivo studies, we
received a full-length LIMPII cDNA from I. Sandoval (Madrid), and
the construct was subcloned into pMEP4 vector to utilize its inducible
promoter and stably transfected into MDCK cells. A LIMPII QRD mutant
was constructed by PCR mutagenesis using full-length LIMPII as the
template and the primer set, GCT TAG ACG CTA GCG ATG GCC CGA (upper
primer) and CCA TTA AAT TGC GGC CGC TTA GGT TCG TAT GAG GTC TCG TTG TTC
ATC TGC AGT (lower primer). The PCR product was then subcloned into
pMEP4 using NheI and NotI sites and stably
transfected into MDCK cells.
Antibodies--
The mouse monoclonal antibody 29G10 (a kind gift
from Dr. I. Sandoval, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) was used to
detect LIMPII as described elsewhere (23). Goat anti-mouse secondary antibodies coupled to Alexa 594 were obtained from Molecular Probes (Leiden, The Netherlands). A rabbit anti-mouse secondary antibody was
obtained from DAKO AS (Denmark).
Expression and Purification of GST Fusion Proteins--
All
fusion proteins were expressed and purified as recommended by the
manufacturer (Amersham Biosciences). Briefly, BL21 cells carrying the
constructs of interest were induced with 0.25 M
isopropyl-1-thio- Stable Transfection of MDCK Cells and Clonal Selection--
MDCK
cells (strain II) pretransfected with the EEA1 binding domain fused to
GFP (24) were stably transfected with various LIMPII constructs by the
calcium phosphate procedure of Ref. 25. Clones expressing the DNA
constructs in pMEP4 vector under control of metallothionein promoter
were selected in the presence of hygromycin B (0.3 mg/ml). Resistant
clones were selected and incubated with 25 mM
CdCl2 overnight to induce expression of the protein of
interest. Clones that expressed constructs of interest were identified
with anti-LIMPII antibodies. 3-4 positive clones with different
expression levels of the protein of interest were selected in each
case. MDCK cells expressing LIMPII constructs were grown in full growth medium (Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum, 2 mM glutamine, 25 units/ml penicillin,
and 25 µg/ml streptomycin) in 6% CO2 in a 37 °C incubator.
Radiolabeling and Immunoprecipitation--
For metabolic
labeling, transfected MDCK cells were grown to ~80% confluence in
full medium supplemented with 25 µM CdCl2. The cells were
washed twice and incubated for 40 min at 37 °C in
cysteine/methionine-free Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium medium
(Bio Whittaker) and then incubated for 5 h with 50 µCi/ml of
[35S]cysteine/methionine. After metabolic labeling, the
cells were washed with ice-cold PBS and lysed in ice-cold lysis buffer
(1% Triton X-100, 0,1 M NaCl, 1 mM EDTA, 10mM
Na2HPO4) containing a mixture of protease
inhibitors (1 µg/ml leupeptin, 0,25 mM
phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, 2 µg/ml antipain, 1 µg/ml aprotinin,
1 µg pepstatin A, 1 µg/ml E-64). The lysate was centrifuged at
13,000 rpm for 10 min at 4 °C to remove cell debris. LIMPII was
precipitated from the supernatant with 29G10 monoclonal antibody
overnight at 4 °C. Secondary antibodies, rabbit anti-mouse IgGs
coupled to protein A-Sepharose beads (Amersham Biosciences) were added for 2 h at 4 °C. Immunoprecipitates were extensively washed.
The proteins were eluted from the beads by incubating in gel-loading buffer (50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 1% SDS, 10% glycerol, 100 mM dithiothreitol, and 0.1% bromphenol blue) at 95 °C
for 5 min. Immunoprecipitates were resolved by 10% SDS-PAGE. The bands
were detected with the Bio-Rad GS-250 PhosphorImager. The intensity of
the bands was quantified with the Molecular Analyst 2.0.2 software
(Bio-Rad).
Immunofluorescence Microscopy--
Transfected MDCK cells
expressing various LIMPII constructs were grown on glass cover slips
and fixed in 3% paraformaldehyde (PFA) in PBS for 10 min at room
temperature. Fixed cells were incubated for 30 min with a primary
antibody followed by a 30-min labeling with a secondary antibody to
label total LIMPII. Antibodies were diluted in PBS, 0.1% saponin to
label total intracellular protein or in PBS containing no saponin for
the experiments where only surface labeling was desired. To monitor
internalization of anti LIMPII antibodies from the cell surface,
antibodies were added to the cells for 30 min on ice. The cells were
then washed with PBS chased in complete medium for different time
periods before fixation. Secondary antibodies were then added in PBS
with saponin. Fluorescence was detected, and images were acquired using a Leica TCS-NT digital scanning confocal microscope equipped with a
60/1.2 water immersion objective. The pinhole value was kept below 1. The images were processed for presentation with Adobe Photoshop software.
Preparation of AP1 and AP2--
AP1 and AP2 were prepared from
pig brain essentially as described elsewhere (26). Briefly,
clathrin-coated vesicles were purified from brain after homogenization
and differential centrifugation. The adaptor proteins were released
from clathrin-coated vesicles with 0.5 M Tris/HCL, pH 7.0 and applied to a Superose-6 column (2.5 × 75 cm, equilibrated in
the same buffer) connected to an FPLC (Amersham Biosciences) system at
a flow rate of 0.3 ml/min. Fractions containing AP1 and AP2 were
identified by SDS-PAGE and separated from each other by subsequent
hydroxylapatite chromatography as described elsewhere (27). Fractions
containing either AP1 or AP2 were dialyzed against BIA buffer (see
above), which was used for all experiments using surface plasmon resonance.
Preparation of AP3--
For analyzing AP3 binding, pig brain
cytosol was fractionated by gel filtration as described (22) using a
60-cm TSK SWXL 3000 size-exclusion column connected to a perfusion
chromatography work station (Perseptive Biosystems). The AP3-containing
fractions were shown to be devoid of AP1 and AP2 (for details, see Ref. 22).
Surface Plasmon Resonance--
The interaction between the
different Ii constructs and adaptors was analyzed in real time by
surface plasmon resonance (28) using a BIAcore 3000 biosensor (BIAcore
AB). Ii constructs were immobilized via their GST moiety of the GST-Ii
chimera to the surface of a CM5 sensor chip coated with anti-GST
antibodies. The subsequent interaction experiments were performed at a
flow-rate of 20 µl/min. Association was recorded for 2 min during
which adaptor proteins at different concentrations were injected and followed by recording dissociation for 2 min during which buffer was
perfused. A short pulse injection (15 s) of 20 mM NaOH,
0.5% SDS was used to regenerate the surface after each experimental cycle. The anti-GST surface retained its binding capacity for at least
15 cycles of association, dissociation, and regeneration. AP1 and AP2
were used at concentrations ranging from 20 to 200 nM. The
cytosolic fractions enriched in AP3 were used at three dilutions.
Determination of Kinetic Rate Constants--
The association and
dissociation constants ka and
kd for the interactions were calculated by using
the evaluation software of the BIAcore 3000. The mathematical models
used are described in more detail elsewhere (27) In brief, the
association was determined after 15-20 s following the switch from
buffer solution to adaptor solution to avoid distortions due to
injection and mixing. The dissociation rate constants were determined
after 5-10 s following the switch to buffer solution. After a rapid (~30 s) dissociation phase of adaptor from Ii-GST, the dissociation kinetics decreased to a low rate. The association constant
ka, the dissociation constant
kd, and the calculation of the equilibrium constant KD = kd/ka were determined by
using the BIA evaluation software version 1.2, assuming a first order
kinetic A + B = AB. Relative binding values were then calculated
from the KD values.
Standard deviations (in percentage of the mean value) for AP1 and AP2
equilibrium constants (KD), or AP3 affinity were
measured relative to the wild type LIMPII construct using the same
adaptor batch.
We have previously demonstrated that AP1 and AP2 adaptor protein
complexes could interact with the invariant chain in an in vitro assay monitored with surface plasmon resonance technique, and that such interactions were dependent on the intact leucine-sorting signals in the invariant chain (15). We have also shown that two other
molecules that contain similar leucine signals, tyrosinase and LIMPII,
only poorly interact with AP1 or AP2, but strongly bind to AP3 (15,
22). Furthermore, interactions between LIMPII and AP3 and the invariant
chain and AP1 and AP2 were dependent on acidic residues upstream of the
critical leucine signals (22, 29). This latter finding suggested that
residues in close apposition to the leucine-based motif could play a
critical role in determining adaptor binding. We therefore investigated
the role of other residues upstream of the leucine signals for their
influence on AP1, AP2, and AP3 binding. To this end, we constructed a
set of GST fusion constructs containing various chimeric constructs in
which one or several amino acids upstream of the leucine signals were
swapped between the invariant chain and LIMPII molecules (Fig.
1) and measured their interactions with
the adaptor complexes. Since the invariant chain has two independent
leucine signals, we made two sets of constructs. Each set had one of
the leucine signals knocked out by an alanine substitution, and amino
acid swap was performed upstream of the other, intact signal.
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INTRODUCTION
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
1) chain of
the AP1 complex in a cross-linking assay. In our laboratories
interactions between leucine signals and medium chains of AP1 and AP2
were observed in phage-display assays (13), in protein-protein
interaction assays on magnetic beads (14), and in surface plasmon
resonance assays (15).
4 and
5),
we investigated the influence of nearby residues on the specificity of
interactions between those signals and AP1, AP2, and AP3. We
constructed a set of GST fusion proteins containing various chimeric
Ii-LIMPII constructs, which were then tested for adaptor binding by
surface plasmon resonance. To corroborate our in vitro
observations, we also analyzed the intracellular fate of the wild type
LIMPII and LIMPII with the invariant chain signal, transfected into
MDCK cells.
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MATERIALS AND METHODS
TOP
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
-D-galacropyranoside for 3 h and
collected by centrifugation. The fusion proteins were released by a
series of 15-s sonication steps or by Bugbuster kit (Novagen) and then
purified on GST-Sepharose (Amersham Biosciences). The purity and size
of the proteins were verified by SDS-PAGE. GST, which served as a
negative control, and the chimeric constructs were used for adaptor
binding measurements after dialysis against BIA buffer (20 mM HEPES pH 7, 150 mM NaCl, 10 mM
KCl, 2 mM MgCl2, 0.2 mM dithiothreitol).
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RESULTS
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ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES

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Fig. 1.
Constructs used in this study.
Constructs for the in vivo and in vitro studies
were made as described under "Materials and Methods."
Leucine-sorting signals are underlined. Mutations introduced
are shown in bold italic font.
Fig. 2, panel A shows the
effect of substituting one or several amino acids in the invariant
chain membrane-distal signal on AP3 binding. As reported earlier (15),
the invariant chain does not interact with AP3, and here we did not
observe any interaction between AP3 and the L17A mutant of the
invariant chain. We then swapped the three residues between the
critical acidic residues and leucine residues, QRD, for the three
corresponding residues from the LIMPII molecule, RAP. The resulting
construct, L17A, QRD
RAP exhibited significant AP3 binding, around
25% of the wild-type LIMPII construct. Next, we made three more
invariant chain constructs in which two out of these three residues
were swapped with the corresponding residues from the LIMPII molecule. All three of these constructs were able to interact with AP3 (Fig. 2A). The L17A, QRD
RAD chimera retained the levels of
AP3 binding exhibited by the triple substitution chimera (25% of wild
type LIMPII). The L17A, QRD
QAP construct had somewhat decreased AP3 binding capacity, 13% of the wild-type LIMPII, whereas the L17A,
QRD
RRP construct exhibited twice the amount of AP3 binding compared with the triple substitute construct (around 55% of the wild-type LIMPII binding).
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All three single amino acid substitutions were also made. When
asparatic acid residue at position
1 upstream of the critical leucines was substituted with proline (the L17A, QRD
QRP
construct), this chimera showed some AP3 binding (14% of the wild-type
LIMPII). The other two single substitution constructs did not bind to
AP3 (0-4% residual binding), suggesting an important role for the proline residue upstream of the leucine signal in AP3 binding.
We also investigated AP1 and AP2 binding to these L17A constructs. As
shown in Fig. 2B, AP1 binding did not decrease dramatically in all but two chimeric constructs and stayed around 80% of that of
the L17A construct. These two constructs, L17A, QRD
RAD, and L17A,
QRD
RAP, exhibited AP1 binding of around 20-25% of that of the
L17A construct. Interestingly, the construct that lost most of the AP1
binding capacity, L17A, QRD
RRP, also gained the highest AP3
binding. AP2 binding (Fig. 2C) did not change for all but 2 constructs, L17A, QRD
QAP and L17A, QRD
QRP. These two
constructs showed AP2 binding of ~60% of the L17A construct. There
was no apparent correlation between the loss of AP2 binding and
increase in AP3 binding for this set of constructs.
Next, we performed swaps of the residues upstream of the leucine pair
between LIMPII and the second, membrane-proximal signal of the
invariant chain. It is noteworthy, that in this case only two amino
acids had to be swapped, since the membrane-proximal signal of the
invariant chain also has a proline residue at the
1 position from the
critical di-leucine (ML) signal.
Fig. 3A shows AP3 binding to
the set of constructs containing swaps around the membrane-proximal
leucine signal of the invariant chain. We found weak AP3 binding to the
L7A mutant itself (5% of the wild-type LIMPII binding). The L7A, QLP
RAP mutant that had two amino acids swapped had higher AP3 binding
(10% of the wild-type LIMPII), and surprisingly, both constructs that
had only one residue swapped, L7A, QLP
RLP, and L7A, QLP
QAP, possessed even higher AP3 binding (20 and 18% of the wild-type LIMPII,
respectively). Since the double arginine-containing construct (L17A,
QRD
RRP) had such a dramatic effect on AP3 binding to the
membrane-distal signal, we created a similar swap in the
membrane-proximal signal. The resulting construct, L7A, QLP
RRP had
55% binding of the wild-type LIMPII, confirming that the double
arginine and a proline just upstream of leucine signal confer stronger
AP3 binding irrespective of the leucine pair composition (LI or ML leucine pairs). Finally, we investigated the role of upstream acidic
residues on AP3 binding. Both LIMPII and membrane-distal signal of the
invariant chain contain two acidic residues in the positions
4 and
5 of the leucine pair (DE and DD, respectively), whereas the
membrane-proximal signal of the invariant chain has only one acidic
residue at the
4 position. We therefore introduced an extra acidic
residue at the
5 position into the membrane-proximal signal of the
invariant chain together with the swap of residues in positions
2 and
3. The resulting construct, L7A, NEQLP
DERAP possessed much
higher AP3 binding (80% of LIMPII) than the L7A, NERAP construct (also
labeled as L7A, QLP
RAP) that had only 10% of LIMPII AP3 binding.
Therefore, two acidic residues at the
4 and
5 positions seem to
give rise to a better AP3 binding than a single acidic residue at the
4 position.
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As with the membrane-distal signal, we studied the effect of the amino
acid swap upstream of the membrane-proximal signal on AP1 and AP2
binding. As seen from comparing Fig. 3A and Fig. 3B, there is a strong correlation between the loss of AP1
binding and the increase in AP3 binding for all constructs studied. In the case of AP2 binding, a correlation between gain of AP3 binding and
loss of AP2 binding was not significant, although two constructs that
had the highest AP3 binding (L7A, QLP
RRP and L7A, NEQLP
DERAP)
also showed some reduced AP2 binding (around 65% of the AP2 binding to
the L7A construct).
To corroborate our findings on the importance of residues neighboring
the leucine signal, we then analyzed amino acids swaps between LIMPII
and the invariant chain on the ability of LIMPII to bind AP3, AP1, and
AP2. As shown in Fig. 4A, when
the RAP residues upstream of the leucine pair were swapped with the QRD
residues from the invariant chain, the resulting construct exhibited a dramatic loss in AP3 binding (30% of the wild type LIMPII binding), a
decrease comparable to that when the critical leucine residue was
knocked out with an alanine (21% of the wild-type LIMPII AP3 binding).
Therefore, we can conclude that the three residues upstream of the
leucine pair are indeed part of the motif that mediates binding to AP3.
The introduction of the QRD sequence into LIMPII molecule gave a
slight increase in AP1 binding capacity (20%), compared with the
wild-type LIMPII, but this was still only 12% of the wild-type Ii
binding. When binding to AP2 was analyzed, the QRD introduction did not
change the affinity for AP2 binding of the LIMPII mutant as compared
with the wild type LIMPII, suggesting that binding of wild-type LIMPII
to AP2 require also other structural elements than the amino acid
changes we introduced.
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Since the introduction of the QRD sequence into the LIMPII molecule
significantly reduced its AP3 binding capacity but increased its AP1
binding capacity in vitro, we decided to investigate the in vivo fate of the respective mutant proteins. Wild type
LIMPII has been shown to be transported from the TGN to lysosomes via endosomes (presumably via interactions with AP3 complex) and has not
been detected on the plasma membrane (30). We speculated that the
reduction in AP3 binding activity upon introduction of the QRD sequence
into the wild-type LIMPII might result in the transport of LIMPII to
the plasma membrane. Since several studies have shown that
overexpression of certain proteins can lead to their general missorting
and accumulation on the plasma membrane (31, 32), we had to ensure that
overexpressing our mutant LIMPII constructs does not cause unspecific
cell surface delivery. Fig. 5A
shows the immunoprecipitation of LIMPII molecules from the cell lines
used for our studies. First, it is notable that expression of the
mutant QRD LIMPII molecule was at the same level as the expression of
the wild type LIMPII used for control experiments. Fig. 5B
shows staining of the cells expressing these levels of the wild type
LIMPII. To simplify the detection of endosomal structures, these cells
were also transfected with the EEA1-GFP construct, which we have used
as an excellent in vivo marker for early endosomes (24, 54).
For wild-type LIMPII, only intracellular staining was notable,
while staining of LIMPII at the plasma membrane was not detectable, in
line with the results from the groups of Sandoval and Hoflack (30,
34). On the other hand, the LIMPII QRD mutant was detectable in
significant amounts at the plasma membrane in addition to the
intracellular staining (Fig. 5C). Furthermore, anti-LIMPII
antibodies could be internalized from the plasma membrane of the cells
expressing the LIMPII QRD protein (Fig. 5E), whereas no
antibody uptake was observed in wild-type LIMPII-expressing cells (Fig.
5D). Finally, PFA-fixed, non-permeablized cells expressing either the wild-type LIMPII or the mutant LIMPII QRD construct were
labeled with the anti-LIMPII antibody to reveal the surface staining
only. As expected, no surface staining was detected in the cells
expressing the wild-type LIMPII construct (Fig. 5F), whereas
strong membrane staining was observed in cells expressing the mutant
LIMPII QRD construct (Fig. 5G). The same results were obtained when these cells expressing the wild-type and the mutant LIMPII constructs were first labeled with the anti-LiMPII antibody on
ice, and then fixed with PFA (not shown). In conclusion, the introduction of the QRD sequence into wild-type LIMPII indeed leads to
its re-routing via the plasma membrane and internalization, most likely
due to the loss of efficient AP3 binding whereas the capability to
interact with PM adaptors are maintained.
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DISCUSSION |
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In this study, we demonstrated that residues immediately upstream of the leucine pair in leucine-based sorting signals can be critical for sorting of the newly synthesized molecules to endosomal/lysosomal pathway. It has been believed for some time that the structure of the classic leucine sorting signal was (A)AXXXLL, where L is leucine, isoleucine, or methionine, A is an acidic residue, and X is any other amino acid residue. This study demonstrates that those "non-critical" residues may also contribute to the determination of adaptor binding, and in fact discriminate between, for example, AP1 and AP3 binding. This would then determine whether the molecules containing various leucine-based signals are sorted directly to endosomes/lysosomes, or sorted via a different route via the plasma membrane.
According to the data presented in this report, the following residues
in the proximity of the leucine pair are important for AP3 binding:
proline residue at the
1 position from the leucine pair, a positively
charged residue such as arginine at position
3, and negatively
charged residues at positions
4 and
5. Importantly, effects of
these residues on AP3 binding appear to be additive.
Indeed, the proline residue at
1 position confers some AP3 binding to
the L7A set of constructs (Fig. 3A), and a single Asp to Pro
substitution in the
1 position of the membrane-distal signal in the
context of L17A grants significant (14% of the wild-type LIMPII) AP3
binding to the invariant chain construct. For comparison, the swap of 3 residues at positions
1,
2, and
3 (L17A QRD
RAP construct)
grants the resulting chimera only 25% of wild-type LIMPII AP3 binding
(Fig. 2A).
A positively charged residue such as arginine at position
3 has an
additive effect on AP3 binding when residues at positions
1 and
2
are also swapped, but may not grant AP3 binding properties by itself.
Indeed, when arginine is introduced at position
3 in the
membrane-distal signal of the invariant chain (L17A QRD
RRD), AP3
binding is not detectable (Fig. 2A). However, when arginine
is introduced in the
3 position of the membrane-proximal signal (L7A,
QLP
RLP construct, Fig. 3A) significant AP3 binding is
observed. We believe that this could be due to the additive effect of
arginine at the
3 position and proline at the
1 position that is
present in the native membrane-proximal signal of the invariant chain.
This is further corroborated by introducing both proline at the
1
position and arginine at the
3 position of the membrane-distal signal
(L17A, QRD
RRP construct, Fig. 2A). This construct
exhibits much higher AP3 binding than the one in which only the proline
residue is introduced at position
1 (L17A, QRD
QRP construct,
Fig. 2A).
Interestingly, the invariant chain constructs that contain arginine at
positions
3 and
2 together with proline at the position
1 in both
membrane-proximal and membrane-distal signals bind AP3 significantly
stronger than constructs containing original residues from LIMPII
(Figs. 2A and 3A). At the same time, when proline
is not present at the
1 position, double arginines at the
2 and the
3 positions do not confer AP3 binding properties to the invariant
chain construct (Fig. 2A). It is thus possible that the
double positive charge together with proline at the
1 position (which
presumably gives the leucine pair flexibility to fit in the recognition
site of AP3) is the preferred motif for AP3 recognition.
AP3 binding to the invariant chain chimeras seems to be significantly
stronger when double negatively charged residues are present at
positions
4 and
5 than if there is only one charged residue in the
position
4 (Fig. 3A, compare constructs L7A, QLP
RAP
and L7A, NEQLP
DERAP). It is also of notice that glutamic acid
residue at the position
4 seems to cause stronger AP3 binding than an
aspartic acid residue in the same position (compare constructs L17A,
QRD
RAP, 25% relative AP3 binding and L7A, NEQLP
DERAP, 80%
relative AP3 binding).
We compared the structure of other molecules containing leucine signals
that are known to interact with AP3 complex, or are transported
directly to endosomes/lysosomes/melanosomes/vacuoles, presumably, via
interactions with AP3 (Fig. 6, data for
the figure are taken from Refs. 35 and 36-39). The overwhelming
majority of these molecules contain proline at position
1, such as
tyrosinase and TRP1 families. A noticeable exception is yeast protein
ALP that contains arginine at this position. Yeast adaptor protein complexes are somewhat different from mammalian APs, and it is possible
that yeast AP3 recognition site differs from that of mammalian AP3s,
although another yeast vacuolar protein, Vamp3p has a proline residue
in its
1 position.
|
Interestingly, the majority of the depicted proteins contain a charged
residue (in most cases arginine) at position
3 and a glutamic acid
residue (rather than aspartic acid residue) at position
4. TRP1 does
not have an acidic residue in position
4, but has glutamic acid
residue at position
5 and another acidic residue at position
6
(Fig. 6). The general structure of a leucine signal that is recognized
by mammalian AP3 is therefore likely to be
(D/E)E(R/K)XPLL.
This study also revealed a strong correlation between the loss of AP1 binding and acquisition of AP3 binding in the invariant chain/LIMPII chimeric constructs (compare Figs. 2, A with B, and 3, A with B). We therefore believe that the following may be the basis for sorting at the TGN: some signals with higher affinity for AP3 get sorted in the cargo vesicles destined for direct delivery to endosomes/lysosomes, and other signals have higher affinity for AP1 and are sorted to their destination in AP1-containing cargo vesicles. Previous studies (22) have also shown lack of correlation between the loss of AP2 binding and acquisition of AP3 binding for tyrosinase, and this agrees well with the results of this study. The overall picture of sorting at TGN is likely to be more complicated, as another set of molecules, so-called GGAs (40-43) have recently been demonstrated to be involved at this sorting step as well. Importantly, GGAs have been recently demonstrated to interact with leucine signals (44-48). AP1B and AP4 complexes may also be involved in sorting from the TGN, as they have been implicated in basolateral sorting of some molecules to in polarized cells (5, 49). Further studies are required to determine which molecules are sorted via interactions with AP1, AP3, AP4, or GGAs.
At the same time, no correlation was apparent between the loss of AP2 binding and acquisition of AP3 binding in the same set of constructs (compare Figs. 2, A with B, and 3, A with B). Previous studies from our laboratories have also demonstrated relative non-specificity of AP2 for interactions with various sorting signals (29, 50). A possible biological role of such relative unspecificity could be to ensure an efficient internalization of all proteins that contain leucine-based signals from the plasma membrane and thus guarantee the clearance of proteins that may have escaped to the cell surface as a result of missorting.
Our studies of substitutions in the invariant chain constructs were
further corroborated by reverse substitution in LIMPII molecule. When
residues at positions
1,
2, and
3 in LIMPII were swapped for the
appropriate residues from the membrane-distal signal of the invariant
chain, the resulting construct exhibited increased AP1 binding and
significantly reduced AP3 binding in vitro. In
vivo, such construct appeared to be missorted to the plasma
membrane instead of the direct delivery to endosomes/lysosomes.
It is important to mention the comprehensive studies performed by the
groups of Bonifacino and co-workers (51, 52), which revealed distinct
preferences in recognition of various tyrosine-sorting signals by
medium chains of the four AP complexes using the two-hybrid system.
These studies demonstrated that different medium chains prefer tyrosine
signals with different residues in positions +1 and +3 from the
critical tyrosine residue, whereas the requirements for the residue in
+2 position were similar, as the medium chains of all four AP complexes
seem to prefer proline residue at this position. Höning and
co-workers (50) have recently reported the effect of swapping residues
in the positions +1 and +2 between lysosomal proteins LAP and lamp I. The lamp 1 molecule has previously been shown to interact with both AP1
and AP2, whereas LAP interacted with AP2 only (53, 33). Introduction of
lamp I residues from the positions +1 and +2 into respective positions
of LAP caused the latter molecule to interact with AP1 in
vitro, and get transported to lysosomes directly rather than via
recycling pathway, whereas reverse substitution into lamp I made it go
into endosomes/lysosomes via recycling pathway instead of direct
lysosomal pathway (50). In both types of sorting signals, leucine- and
tyrosine-based, the critical surrounding residues play an essential
role in the sorting events as they may determine the specific adaptor
binding affinity. To classify sorting signals using the double leucine or tyrosine as a primary criteria may thus be rather misleading or an
oversimplification as the tyrosine and leucine signals overlap in their
binding ability to the same adaptors and the adaptor specificity is
determined by surrounding residues.
| |
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
|---|
We thank Dr. Ignacio Sandoval for the gifts of LIMPII cDNA and antibody against LIMPII and Hanne C. Gilje for excellent technical assistance.
| |
FOOTNOTES |
|---|
* This work was supported in part by Grant XCT 960058 from the European Union (to S. H., K. F., and O. B.), grants from the Norwegian Cancer Society (to D. G. R. and O. B.), a grant from the NOVO Nordisle Fonden (to O. B.) and a grant from the German Science Foundation (to S. H.).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.
¶ To whom correspondence should be addressed: Division of Molecular Cell Biology, Dept. of Biology, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1050 Blindern, N-0316 Oslo, Norway. Tel.: 4722855787; Fax: 4722854605; E-mail: obakke@bio.uio.no.
Published, JBC Papers in Press, October 4, 2002, DOI 10.1074/jbc.M207149200
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ABBREVIATIONS |
|---|
The abbreviations used are: AP, adaptor protein complex; MHC, major histocompatibility complex; Ii, invariant chain; ER, endoplasmic reticulum; CCV, clathrin-coated vesicle; MDCK cells, Madin Darby Canine Kidney cells; TGN, trans-Golgi network; PBS, phosphate-buffered saline; GST, glutathione S-transferase; LIMPII, lysosomal integral membrane protein II.
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