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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 279, Issue 38, 39856-39862, September 17, 2004
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From the Department of Chemistry and Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-1229
Received for publication, June 17, 2004
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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The peripheral catalytic V1 subcomplex is a 560-kDa domain composed of eight subunits (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H). Its catalytic core is composed of a hexameric ring of alternating A (69 kDa) and B (57 kDa) subunits (5). Both the A and B subunits contain consensus sequences for ATP binding domains, where subunit A has been ascribed with the catalytic function (6), and subunit B is proposed to have a regulatory role (7). The role of the other V1 subunits is not so clear. It is thought that the central stalk may be composed of D (32 kDa) and F (14 kDa) subunits (8, 9). The stator region is thought to be composed of E (27 kDa), G (13 kDa), C (42 kDa), and H (54 kDa) subunits (9-13). All subunits are required for a fully assembled complex with the exception of the H subunit; however, the H subunit is required for a functional complex (14).
The membrane-associated V0 subcomplex is composed of five subunits (a, c, c', c'', and d). There is a ring of the proteolipid subunits Vma3p (16.5 kDa, subunit c), Vma11p (17 kDa, subunit c'), and Vma16p (23 kDa, subunit c''), and each proteolipid subunit contains a conserved acidic residue required for proton translocation (15). The proteolipid ring contains one copy each of the c' and c'' subunits (16), with 4-5 copies of subunit c (4, 5). The a (100-kDa) subunit has two isoforms, Vph1p and Stv1p. The two isoforms specify to which organelles the V-ATPase complex is routed; the Vph1p containing V-ATPase complex localizes to the vacuole, whereas the Stv1p-containing complex remains in the Golgi/endosome membranes (17, 18). The a subunit contains two domains, a hydrophilic N terminus domain believed to form part of the stator and a hydrophobic carboxyl domain, which also forms part of the proton pore (19-21). The function of the d (36 kDa) subunit is currently unknown, but recently a x-ray crystal structure has been published, in which the authors propose that the d subunit may cap the top of the proteolipid ring (22). Like the F-type ATP synthase, the V-ATPase has been shown to work by a rotary mechanism. ATP is hydrolyzed by the A subunit causing a conformation change and, thus, rotating the central stalk composed of F and D (23, 24). The stalk is fixed to the ring of c subunits and causes it to rotate as well (25). The c subunit ring rotates relative to the stator, thus pumping protons with a rotary mechanism. Unlike the F-type ATP synthase, the VATPase functions physiologically to pump protons across the lipid bilayer and not to synthesize ATP.
NMR and x-ray crystallography studies have shown that the F-type ATP synthase 8-kDa-subunit forms an
-helical hairpin with two transmembrane helices such that the N termini and the C termini oriented away from the F1 subcomplex (26-29). There is no high resolution structure of the c subunits from the V-ATPase. However, based upon the similarity to the F-type ATP synthase c subunit and hydropathy plots, Vma3p and Vma11p can be modeled to have four transmembrane helices and Vma16p to have five transmembrane helices (3). The VATPase subunits may have arisen from a gene duplication event of a common c subunit ancestor (30-32). This would suggest that the orientation of the termini of Vma3p and Vma11p would lie within the lumen of the vacuole, whereas Vma16p would have either the N terminus or the C terminus in the lumen of the vacuole. Previous studies have suggested that Vma16p (c'') has either four (33) or five (34) transmembrane regions, and these studies came to different conclusions about the requirement for the first putative transmembrane helix of Vma16p.
In this paper we describe the molecular and biochemical approach that we used to address the topology of Vma3p, Vma11p, and Vma16p. We have attached epitope tags to the N and C termini of these three subunits and used protease protection assays to determine the orientation of the termini. Through immunoblot analysis of the limited proteolysis we have determined that the N and C termini of Vma3p and Vma11p are located within the lumen of the vacuole, whereas the N terminus of Vma16p is located in the cytoplasm, and the C terminus is in the lumen. In addition, we have also constructed chimeric fusions of Vma16p and Vma3p that further support our topological model of Vma16p.
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
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Proteolytic Protection AssaysIntact vacuolar vesicles were isolated using a previously described procedure with modifications (21, 35). Briefly, yeast were grown to log phase of A600 = 4.0 in YEPD medium buffered to pH 5.0, cells were converted to spheroplast, and lysed with a loosely fitting Dounce homogenizer in Buffer A (10 mM Mes/Tris, pH 6.9, 0.1 mM MgCl2, 12% Ficoll). The lysate was centrifuged at 60,000 x g for 45 min in a swinging bucket rotor. The floating white layer containing the vacuoles were removed with a weigh spatula and resuspended in 10 ml of modified buffer 88 (M88) (20 mM HEPES, pH 6.8, 150 mM potassium acetate, 1 mM magnesium acetate, 1 mM CaCl2, 250 mM sorbitol). The vacuoles were recovered by centrifugation at 13,000 x g, washed twice in M88 buffer, and brought up to a final protein concentration of 4 mg/ml. Samples containing 1 mg of protein were treated at 4 °C with trypsin (0.5 mg/ml) and proteinase K (0.5 mg/ml) in the absence or presence of 1% Triton X-100 for 10 min. The reactions were quenched by the addition of an equal volume of 40% trichloroacetic acid. The samples were pelleted at 13,000 x g and washed with an equal volume of ice-cold acetone. The pellets were resuspended in Thorner buffer (8 M urea, 5% SDS, 40 mM Tris, pH 6.8, 0.1 mM EDTA, 0.4 mg/ml bromphenol blue,
-mercaptoethanol added fresh to 5%), and 10 µg of protein was loaded per lane of a SDS-PAGE.
Protein Preparation, SDS-PAGE, and Immunoblot AnalysisWhole cell extracts and vacuolar membranes were prepared as described previously (35, 36). SDS-PAGE analysis was performed. Proteins were transferred to 0.2-µm nitrocellulose and probed with either an affinity-purified monoclonal anti-HA (Covance Research Products Inc.) used at 1:3000, the anti-Myc 9E10 described previously (37) used at 1:5, antibodies 10D7 or 7B1 used to probe for Vph1p at 1:500 (Molecular Probes), the monoclonal antibody 13D11 directed against Vma2p used at 1:1000 (Molecular Probes), or the monoclonal antibody 10E5 used to probe for CPY at 1:500 (Molecular Probes). Proteins were visualized using affinity-purified donkey anti-mouse secondary antibodies conjugated to horseradish peroxidase (1:20000) (Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories Inc.) and chemiluminescence (Amersham Biosciences)
Fluorescence MicroscopyQuinacrine staining of live yeast cells was conducted as previously described (36) with the following modification. Concanavalin A TRITC (Molecular Probes) was added at a final concentration of 50 µg/ml with the quinacrine to allow for visualization of the cell surface. Images were acquired on a Zeiss Axioplan 2 microscope and manipulated using AxioVision software.
Native ImmunoprecipitationImmunoprecipitations were carried out as previously described with the following exceptions (16). 1 mg of solubilized membranes was precleared with the addition of 50 µl of 50% slurry of Protein G-Sepharose 4 Fast Flow (Amersham Biosciences). 5 µl of affinity-purified goat anti-HA antibody (Novus Biologicals) was added to the pre-cleared supernatant and agitated at 4 °C for 1 h. 50 µl of 50% slurry of protein G-Sepharose 4 fast flow was added and incubated at 4 °C for 1 h. The beads were collected with a brief centrifugation and washed 3 times with ice-cold phosphate-buffered saline plus 1% C12E9. The beads were resuspended in 200 µl of Thorner buffer, and 20 µl of the supernatant was loaded per well of SDS-PAGE and analyzed by immunoblot analysis.
V-ATPase AssaysATPase activity was measured by a coupled spectrophotometric assay in the absence and presence of 1 µM concanamycin A, as described previously (36).
| RESULTS |
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To determine the topology of the proteins, the intact vesicles were isolated from strains expressing tagged Vma3p, Vma11p, or Vma16p and subjected to limited proteolysis. Vacuoles were incubated with a mixture of proteinase K and trypsin either in the presence or absence of 1% Triton X-100 at 0 °C for 10 min (21). SDS-PAGE and immunoblot analysis were performed on the time points taken during the protease reaction. Two proteins, Vph1p and CPY, were monitored as controls. Vph1p confirms the accessibility of the proteases to proteins oriented on the cytoplasmic side, whereas CPY validates the intactness of the vacuoles. Using the 7B1 anti-Vph1p antibody, Jackson and Stevens (21) show that the N-terminal domain of Vph1p is located in the cytoplasm and is easily susceptible to proteolytic degradation without compromising the integrity of the membrane. CPY is translated with a propeptide domain, which is cleaved when CPY reaches the vacuole to yield the mature form of CPY (36). Because vacuoles were isolated from a yeast strain deficient in active vacuolar proteases due to a mutation in the PEP4 gene, only the proCPY form was present in the vacuole. The anti-Vph1p blot in Fig. 1a illustrates that the protein is degraded by protease in both the absence or presence of detergent, confirming the proteases were active. In contrast, the shift of the proCPY form to the mature CPY can only be seen in the presence of detergent, confirming the intactness of the vacuoles. These results indicate that the isolated vacuoles were properly oriented and intact throughout the limited proteolysis assay.
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The N Termini of Vma3p and Vma11p Are LumenalHydropathy plots predict that Vma3p and Vma11p contain four transmembrane segments. Therefore, if this model is correct and the C termini are in the lumen of the vacuole, then the N termini should also be present within the lumen. To test this hypothesis, N-terminal epitope-tagged Vma3p and Vma11p were constructed. Yeast deletion strains of vma3
or vma11
expressing the corresponding plasmid-borne N-terminal tagged protein grew on pH 7.5-buffered media containing 100 mM CaCl2 (data not shown), a standard test for V-ATPase function (3).
Vacuoles were isolated from cells expressing N-terminal-tagged Vma3p or Vma11p and also subjected to protease digestion followed by immunoblot analysis. As with the C-terminal epitopes, Fig. 1b shows that the N-terminal HA epitope of both Vma3p and Vma11p were protected from proteolysis in the absence of detergent and degraded only with detergent present. These results support the hypothesis that there are four transmembrane regions and the N termini, and C termini of both Vma3p and Vma11p are orientated toward the lumen of the vacuole.
The N Terminus of Vma16p Is CytosolicUnlike Vma3p or Vma11p, Vma16p is predicted to form five putative transmembrane regions. Nishi et al. (33, 38) suggest that the N termini and C termini of Vma16p are both cytosolic, implying that there would be only four transmembrane regions. However, other studies suggest that Vma16p has five transmembrane regions (34, 39). Our results indicate that the C terminus of Vma16p is oriented toward the lumen (Fig. 1a). If Vma16p forms five transmembrane regions, then one would predict the N terminus to be oriented toward the cytosol, whereas if only four transmembrane regions are present, then the N terminus of Vma16p should be located in the lumen of the vacuole. To further test these models a doubly epitope-tagged protein was constructed, subjected to protease treatment, and analyzed by immunoblot analysis. The c-Myc epitope was placed on the N terminus of the previously C-terminal HA-tagged Vma16p. Cells expressing a copy of the doubly epitope-tagged Vma16p were able to confer wild-type growth on pH 7.5 YEPD containing 100 mM CaCl2 (Fig. 2c).
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Previous reports disagree about whether the first transmembrane region is needed for function, with one study reporting a complete loss of function by deletion of amino acids 12-55 of Vma16p (34) and the other study reporting that the deletion of amino acids 12-41 of Vma16p only compromised V-ATPase activity by
30% (33). Because the N terminus of Vma16p is oriented toward the cytosol, one would predict that a deletion of the first transmembrane region would now reposition the N terminus toward the vacuole lumen. To test this, Vma16p lacking only the hydrophobic residues of the first transmembrane region, Vma16p
12-38, was constructed from the full-length doubly tagged Vma16p (Fig. 2b). The protein encoded by vma16
12-38 was able to fully complement a vma16
strain (Fig. 2c). Vacuoles were isolated from vma16
cells expressing doubly tagged Vma16p
12-38 and subjected to protease treatment to test for the orientation of the C terminus and N terminus of Vma16p lacking the first transmembrane region (Fig. 2b). As was found for the full-lengthVma16p, the C-terminal HA epitope tag of Vma16p
12-38 was protected from proteolysis in the absence of detergent (Fig. 2b). However, unlike the full-length protein, the c-Myc epitope tag on the N terminus of Vma16p
12-38 was also protected from proteolysis in the absence of detergent, indicating that it now resides within the lumen of the vacuole. These results provide compelling evidence that Vma16p has five transmembrane segments, with the N terminus facing the cytosol and the C terminus in the lumen.
The Fusion Protein Vma16-Vma3p Is Functional, Whereas Vma3-Vma16p Is Non-functionalStudies with the F-Type ATP synthase show that it is possible to construct fusions of up to four c subunits and still have a functional enzyme complex (40). The proposed topological models of the V-ATPase subunits, Vma3p and Vma16p, allow us to make predictions about the function of a fusion construct between Vma16p and Vma3p. Because Vma16p has been found to have a lumenal C terminus and Vma3p has a lumenal N terminus, we predict that a Vma16-Vma3p fusion construct should be functional (Fig. 3). However, we also predict that a Vma3-Vma16p fusion construct would not be functional in vma16
yeast because it would flip the orientation of Vma16p and force the N terminus to be lumenal and the C terminus to be cytosolic.
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cells expressing the Vma3-Vma16p dimer were unable to grow on pH 7.5 YEPD with 100 mM CaCl2, whereas strains expressing the Vma16-Vma3p dimer grew normally on pH 7.5 YEPD with 100 mM CaCl2 (Fig. 4a). These results suggest that only the Vma16-Vma3p dimer was able to form a functional V-ATPase complex. The dimers were also tested in a vma3
strain, and neither gene fusion complemented the Vma- phenotype of vma3
cells(data not shown). Previous studies revealed that there is only one copy of Vma16p (16) and four to five copies of Vma3p per complex (5). Neither dimer would provide the correct proteolipid stoichiometry in vma3
cells, because to have multiple copies of Vma3p the complex would also have to contain multiple copies of Vma16p. Therefore, expression of either hybrid protein in vma3
cells would be expected to produce a non-functional V-ATPase, as we observed. However, in the vma16
cells Vma3p would also be expressed from the genomic copy of VMA3. Therefore, the VATPase could assemble normally with one copy of Vma16p, provided by the Vma16-Vma3p dimer with the other copies of Vma3p provided by the genomic VMA3 gene, to allow for a proteolipid ring of normal stoichiometry.
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(Fig. 4b). Cell surface staining, outlined in red, was accomplished by the addition of concanavalin A TRITC. The results from the growth on pH 7.5 YEPD plus 100 mM CaCl2 and quinacrine staining indicate that expression of the Vma16-Vma3p in a vma16
background results in a functional V-ATPase complex, whereas expression of the Vma3/Vma16p dimer does not yield a functional complex. The expression of both fusion constructs was tested by immunoblot analysis from whole cell lysates using a HA antibody. Both dimers, Fig. 5a, had apparent molecular masses of 37 kDa, whereas the monomer Vma16p had a molecular mass of 23 kDa. The results from the whole cell lysates demonstrate that both dimers are expressed and apparently stable.
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cells expressing Vma16-Vma3p more closely resemble the levels of Vph1p from the wild-type strain, consistent with Vma16-Vma3p assembling into a functional V-ATPase complex. In contrast, lysates from cells expressing Vma3-Vma16p exhibited dramatically reduced levels of Vph1p, suggesting that Vma3-Vma16p is unable to assemble into the V0 subcomplex (Fig. 5a). Previous studies have found that only fully assembled V0 subcomplexes are able to exit the endoplasmic reticulum and be trafficked to the vacuole (21, 42, 43). To ascertain if the proteolipid dimers are transported to and present on the vacuole, vacuoles were isolated from cells expressing Vma16p, Vma16-Vma3p, or Vma3-Vma16p. Samples were probed with antibodies against the HA epitope to determine whether either dimer was present in enriched vacuole membranes. The lower panel of Fig. 5b reveals that Vma16p and Vma16-Vma3p, but not the Vma3-Vma16p dimer, were present in vacuole membranes. Although the Vma3-Vma16p dimer was expressed and rather stable (Fig. 5a), this dimer failed to assemble into a V0 subcomplex and remained trapped in the endoplasmic reticulum (data not shown). These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the V0 complex assembles normally with the Vma16-Vma3p dimer but not with the Vma3-Vma16p.
To further test for the presence of V0 subunits on the vacuole, samples were also probed for Vph1p. The results were the same as those obtained from the HA blot (Fig. 5b); V0 subunits only present on the vacuole membrane were from cells that expressed either Vma16p or the Vma16-Vma3p dimer but not from cells with the Vma3-Vma16p dimer. To ascertain if the V1 subcomplex was associated with the vacuoles, samples were also probed with antibodies specific for the V1 subunit, Vma2p. The results show that Vma2p was only present in the lanes that correspond to vacuole membranes from cells with either Vma16p or the Vma16-Vma3p dimer. Together, these results indicate that the Vma16-Vma3p dimer, but not the Vma3-Vma16p dimer, is able to assemble into the V0 subcomplex, which is then trafficked to the vacuole.
To verify that the Vma16-Vma3p dimer was present in the fully assembled complex, native immunoprecipitations were performed on isolated vacuoles with antibodies recognizing the HA tag. The samples were probed with antibodies against HA to determine whether full-length dimer was immunoprecipitated. The results show that the full-length Vma16-Vma3p dimer (37 kDa) was immunoprecipitated from vacuoles isolated from strains expressing Vma16-Vma3p (Fig. 5c). The immunoprecipitated samples were also probed for the presence of Vph1p and Vma2p. The results, shown in the upper two panels of Fig. 5c, reveal that both Vph1p and Vma2p were co-immunoprecipitated with the HA tag, present on Vma16p or the Vma16-Vma3p dimer. These results provide additional evidence that the Vma16-Vma3p dimer fusion is able to assemble into a functional V-ATPase complex that localized to the vacuole.
ATPase assays were also conducted on the isolated vacuole membranes from cells expressing one or the other proteolipid dimers to compare with wild-type vacuole membranes. Vacuole membranes from cells expressing the Vma16-Vma3p dimer had an activity of 0.21 ± 0.02 µmol of ATP/min/mg, whereas vacuole membranes from cells expressing Vma16p had an activity of 0.33 ± 0.04 µmol of ATP/min/mg. As expected, vacuole membranes from cells expressing the Vma3-Vma16p dimer failed to show any V-ATPase activity.
Together these results support the topologies outlined for Vma3p, Vma11p, and Vma16p in Fig. 3. The ability of the Vma16-Vma3p dimer to assemble and form a fully functional V-ATPase complex further supports the conclusion that Vma16p contains five transmembrane regions with its N terminus toward the cytosol and the C terminus orientated toward the lumen of the vacuole.
| DISCUSSION |
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Our results demonstrate that Vma3p and Vma11p each contain four transmembrane spanning regions with the N and C termini oriented toward the lumen of the vacuole. The findings are consistent with models in which Vma3p and Vma11p arose by gene duplication events in the evolutionary past of the V-ATPase and that Vma3p and Vma11p can be modeled as two fused F-ATP synthase c subunits with their N and C termini orientated in the lumen of the vacuole (30-32). Our results also provide strong evidence that the N terminus of Vma16p is on the cytoplasmic face of the vacuole, and the C terminus is in the lumen of the vacuole.
Before this study, there have been four studies that have addressed the topology of Vma16p, with each study coming to different conclusions. Nishi et al. (33, 38) suggest that Vma16p contains only four transmembrane regions, with both the N- and C terminus on the cytoplasmic face of the vacuole. A global topological screen of 37 yeast proteins, which included Vma16p, contained data fitting the model with the C terminus in the lumen of the vacuole and the protein containing five transmembrane regions (39). Finally, Nelson and co-workers (50) used an HA antibody to inhibit V-ATPase activity of an isolated complex containing a N-terminally HA-tagged version of Vma16p, implying that the N terminus is on the cytoplasmic face of the vacuole. In light of these discrepancies, we sought an alternate way to further test our topology model.
Both models of the Vma16p topology agree that the N terminus is on the cytoplasmic face, and it is only the location of the C terminus that is in contention. We generated and tested two fusion proteins to test the orientation of Vma16p. By our model the Vma16-Vma3p chimeric protein should contain a properly oriented and functional Vma16p, whereas the Vma3-Vma16p hybrid would be non-functional because it would result in a misoriented Vma16p (Fig. 3). Because only the Vma16p-Vma3p was functional, the data best fit a model in which the C terminus of Vma16p is in lumen of the vacuole. Not only was the V-ATPase complex that contained the Vma16-Vma3p hybrid functional, but this V-ATPase had close to wild-type V-ATPase activity.
Even though the topologies of the three yeast V-ATPase proteolipids Vma3p, Vma11p, and Vma16p have now been established, a few fundamental questions still remain. Why does Vma16p have an extra transmembrane helix? Vma16p
12-38 and Vma16p
2-41, which lack the first transmembrane region, form functional and highly active V-ATPase complexes (33). Alignments of all the known Vma16p (c'')-like molecules do show an interesting trend. All known fungal and animal Vma16p molecules have the predicted five transmembrane regions, but plant c'' proteins are predicted to only contain four transmembrane regions. The first transmembrane region in animal Vma16p polypeptides could merely be an evolutionary relic and, thus, have no significant function in the complex, but further testing would be needed to answer this question. As to placement of the first transmembrane region, future studies will need to be conducted to position it possibly in the interior of the c subunit ring or on the periphery of the ring.
The exact stoichiometry of Vma3p and arrangement of Vma3p, Vma11p, and Vma16p relative to one another within the c subunit ring still remain to be determined. The results from studies with the proteolipid dimers provide a compelling approach to answer these questions. If other proteolipid dimers prove to be functional, then it might be possible to construct a set of fusion proteins that would elucidate the V0 proteolipid stoichiometry and arrangement.
| FOOTNOTES |
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To whom correspondence should be addressed: Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1229. Tel.: 541-346-5884; Fax: 541-346-4854; E-mail: stevens{at}molbio.uoregon.edu.
1 The abbreviations used are: V-ATPase, vacuolar ATPase; YEPD, yeast extract/peptone/dextrose; HA, hemagglutinin; Mes, 4-morpholineethanesulfonic acid; TRITC, tetramethylrhodamine isothiocyanate; CPY, carboxypeptidase Y. ![]()
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| REFERENCES |
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