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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 280, Issue 10, 9728-9734, March 11, 2005
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**

From the
Department of Immunoregulation, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Osaka 565-0871, Japan, ¶Department of Microbiology, Genomic Research Center for Enteropathogenic Bacteria, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju 501-746, Korea, and **Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Saitama 332-0012, Japan
Received for publication, December 7, 2004 , and in revised form, December 29, 2004.
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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-1,2Man
-1,6Man
1,4GlcN
-1,6myo-inositol-P-lipid (where EtNP, Man, GlcN, and P are ethanolamine phosphate, mannose, glucosamine, and phosphate, respectively) (57). The mature GPI precursor, which is added en bloc to the C terminus of a protein as a posttranslational modification, is assembled in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) (8). Although the backbone has a conserved structure in a wide range of eukaryotes, it is modified by various side chains in different organisms (1). In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and mammalian cells, the first
14-linked mannose (Man1) is usually, if not always, modified by EtNP at the 2-position, and the second mannose (Man2) can also be modified by EtNP at the 6-position (9). The EtNP on Man1 and the one linked to the third mannose (Man3) within the backbone are transferred from phosphatidylethanolamine (10, 11), whereas the donor for the EtNP on Man2 has not yet been determined (12).
In yeast and mammalian cells, a group of homologous proteins involved in the transfer of EtNPs to the mannoses has been characterized: Mcd4p, Gpi13p, and Gpi7p in S. cerevisiae (9, 13, 14), and PIG-N and PIG-O in human and mouse cells (15, 16). Mouse F9 cells defective in PIG-N accumulate GPI precursors without EtNP on Man1, indicating that PIG-N is involved in EtNP transfer to Man1 (15). Mcd4p of S. cerevisiae, a homolog of PIG-N, is also involved in transferring EtNP to Man1 (14). PIG-O (16) and its yeast homolog, Gpi13p (13), are involved in transferring EtNP to Man3 (Fig. 1). PIG-O is associated with another protein, PIG-F (17), and the expression of PIG-O is highly dependent upon PIG-F (16). GPI7 was isolated from yeast and shown to be involved in the addition of an EtNP side chain to Man2. MCD4 and GPI13 are essential for growth of S. cerevisiae, whereas GPI7 is not (9).
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120-kDa proteins containing a large hydrophilic luminal domain in the N-terminal portion and multiple transmembrane domains in the C-terminal portion. They each have three regions that are conserved in phosphodiesterases and nucleotide pyrophosphatases within their N-terminal luminal domains (9, 13, 14, 18). Therefore, they are very likely to be catalytic during the transfer of EtNPs to mannoses, although their enzyme activities have not yet been directly demonstrated. In this report, we show that the human homolog of Gpi7p, termed hGPI7, binds to and is stabilized by PIG-F and that hGPI7 competes with PIG-O for binding to PIG-F. We further show by means of RNA interference that hGPI7 is involved in the side-chain modification of Man2.
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
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Cloning of Human GPI7 cDNAWe searched the GenBankTM data base using the BLAST software (20) for sequences homologous to S. cerevisiae Gpi7p (YJL062w) and found a human cDNA containing a 3' region and a genomic sequence (accession numbers AK000272 [GenBank] and AC015776, respectively). We designed two primers, 5'-CGGTTCCGCATCCAGCCTAGCGTGTCCG (forward) and 5'-TGCCTGTGGGACGCTGAGCAGGAGCAGGG (reverse), on the basis of the genomic sequence and amplified the 5' region of hGPI7 cDNA from a human placenta cDNA library. The sequence coincided with the corresponding genomic sequence. The 5' fragment was ligated to the 3' fragment at the NdeI site to generate the full-length cDNA. The cDNA of the 3' region was a gift from Dr. S. Sugano (University of Tokyo).
RNAiThe expression plasmids for the short hairpin RNAs used were based on the pH1 vector, a gift from Dr. H. Hasuwa (Osaka University) (21, 22). The target sequence specifies a 19-nucleotide sequence corresponding to nucleotides 10411059 downstream of the start codon of hGPI7 (tgagagagcagttgagatt). The oligonucleotide was designed to form a hairpin loop, which had a double-stranded target sequence linked by a 9-nucleotide non-complementary spacer (ttcaagaga) (22). We annealed the complementary oligonucleotides and inserted the product into the pH1 vector between the PstI and XbaI sites, resulting in pH1-sihGPI7 (21). The plasmid pH1-siEGFP, used as a control, was also a gift from Dr. H. Hasuwa (21). To obtain stably knocked down cells, we inserted a phosphoglycerokinase promoter-driven puromycin resistance gene (23) into the unique HindIII site of the pH1 plasmid. We electroporated HeLa cells (1 x 107) with 10 µg of pH1-sihGPI7 or pH1-siEGFP in 0.8 ml of HEPES-buffered saline (17) using a Gene Pulser (Bio-Rad) at 975 microfarads and 300 V. Transfectants were selected with 5 µg/ml puromycin for 2 weeks. To check the expression levels of hGPI7 in transfectants, we analyzed the mRNA levels by Northern blotting of 40 µg of total RNA.
PlasmidsProtein expression plasmids were constructed on the basis of the pME18Sf vector, a gift from Dr. K. Maruyama (Tokyo Medical and Dental University). To express GST-tagged hGPI7, we replaced the stop codon of hGPI7 cDNA with an MluI site by PCR. We replaced hDPM1 of pME-Py-hDPM1 (24) with an EcoRI-MluI fragment containing hGPI7 to generate pME-Py-hGPI7-GST. The plasmids for FLAG-PIG-F, FLAG-mPig-o (mouse PIG-O), FLAG-msALDH (microsomal aldehyde dehydrogenase), GST-mPig-n (mouse PIG-N), GST-mPig-o, and GST-msALDH were described previously (16, 24, 25). The plasmids for HA-mPig-o and HA-msALDH were obtained by replacing the FLAG sequence in FLAG-mPig-o and -msALDH with an HA sequence derived from pME-HA-PIG-S (26).
Subcellular Localization of hGPI7CHO cells (6.0 x 107) transfected with 45 µg of pME-Py-hGPI7-GST and 20 µg of pMEEB-FLAG-PIG-F were used for subcellular fractionation (24). Membranes fractionated by sucrose density gradient centrifugation were lysed in 1% Nonidet P-40/150 mM NaCl, and the GST-tagged proteins were precipitated with glutathione-Sepharose 4B (Amersham Biosciences). The precipitated proteins were separated by SDS-PAGE and analyzed by Western blotting with an anti-GST antibody (Amersham Biosciences) and a horseradish peroxidase-conjugated anti-goat IgG antibody (Organon Pharmaceuticals) followed by detection with chemiluminescence (Renaissance, Dupont). The subfractions were characterized by assaying organelle-specific enzymes, namely alkaline phosphodiesterase I for the plasma membrane and
-mannosidase II for the Golgi, and by Western blot analysis for the ER protein ribophorin II (27).
In Vivo Mannose LabelingHeLa cells or their transfectants (2 x 106) were seeded into a new plate on the day before the assay. Class K cells (5 x 106) or HeLa cells were washed twice with glucose-free medium and then incubated for 1 h in 1 ml of medium containing 20 mM HEPES/NaOH (pH 7.4), 100 µg/ml glucose, 10% dialyzed fetal calf serum, and 10 µg/ml tunicamycin. Subsequently, 40 µCi/ml [3H]man-nose (Amersham Biosciences) was added to the cell culture and incubated for 45 min. After five washes with phosphate-buffered saline and cell peeling, the lipids were extracted from the cells with chloroform: methanol:water (10:10:3, v/v), and the mannolipids were purified with butanol-1 and water as described previously (28). The mannolipids were separated by TLC using Kieselgel 60 (Merck) with a solvent system of chloroform:methanol:water (10:10:3, v/v) and detected using BAS1500 Fuji Image Analyzer software (Fuji Film Co.).
Analysis of Protein ComplexesCHO cells (8 x 106) were co-transfected with 4 µg of pMEEB-FLAG-PIG-F and 8 µg of pMEEB-GST-mPig-n, pMEEB-GST-mPig-o, or pME-Py-hGPI7-GST. After culturing for 2 days, the transfected cells were lysed in 1% digitonin, 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.4), 150 mM NaCl, and proteinase inhibitor mixture (Roche Applied Science). Insoluble material was removed by centrifugation at 100,000 x g for 1 h, and the GST-tagged proteins were precipitated from the supernatants with glutathione-Sepharose 4B. The GST-tagged and co-precipitated proteins were analyzed by SDS-PAGE/Western blotting with anti-GST or anti-FLAG antibodies (16). CHO cells (4 x 106) were also co-transfected with 4 µg of pMEEB-FLAG-PIG-F, 20 µg of pME-Py-hGPI7-GST, 2 µg of pMEEB-FLAG-mPig-o, and 2 µg of pME-Py-FLAG-msALDH. hGPI7-GST was precipitated from cell lysate, with anti-GST antibodies or goat serum as a control, and analyzed by Western blotting.
Competition between PIG-O and hGPI7CHO cells (4 x 106) were co-transfected with 1 µg of pMEEB-FLAG-PIG-F, 3 µg of pMEEB-HA-mPig-o, 2 µg of pMEEB-HA-msALDH, and 0, 10, or 20 µg of pME-hGPI7. The total amounts of the plasmids were kept constant by adding the pME18Sf vector. Two days later, the transfectants were lysed in 1% digitonin and divided into two aliquots. FLAG-PIG-F was precipitated with anti-FLAG M2-conjugated beads (Sigma) from one aliquot, and HA-tagged proteins were precipitated with anti-HA HA7 (Sigma) plus protein G-Sepharose (Amersham Biosciences) from the other aliquot. The precipitates were analyzed by Western blotting.
Stability of hGPI7 in PIG-F-defective CellsCHO30.5 cells defective in the PIG-F gene were co-transfected with 8 µg of pME-Py-hGPI7-GST, 2 µg of pME-Py-GST-msALDH, 2 µg of pMEEB-hPIG-L-GST (29), and 10 µg of either pMEEB-FLAG-PIG-F or pME18Sf vector. Two days later, the transfectants were lysed in buffer containing 1% Nonidet P-40, 50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.4), 150 mM NaCl and a proteinase inhibitor mixture. The GST-tagged proteins were precipitated with anti-GST antibodies and protein G beads (16, 24). The precipitates were analyzed by Western blotting and the Fuji Image Analyzer software.
| RESULTS |
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400 amino acids in the N terminus followed by multiple putative transmembrane domains in the C-terminal region (Fig. 2B). hGPI7 shows homology to two other EtNP transferases, PIG-O and PIG-N, with 26 and 20% identity, respectively (15, 16). Together, these data suggest that hGPI7 is one of the EtNP transferases in the GPI biosynthetic pathway.
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To test whether PIG-F, similar to PIG-O, stabilizes hGPI7 (16), we prepared PIG-F mutant CHO30.5 cells that expressed hGPI7-GST, hPIG-L-GST (29), and GST-msALDH and compared the expression levels of the GST-tagged proteins in the presence or absence of PIG-F expression (Fig. 5C). The expression level of hGPI7-GST in the absence of PIG-F was one-half that in the presence of PIG-F, whereas the expression levels of hPIG-L-GST and GST-msALDH remained unchanged. These results indicate that hGPI7, like PIG-O, is bound and stabilized by PIG-F.
hGPI7 Competes with PIG-O for Binding to PIG-FNext, we considered the possibility that PIG-O and hGPI7 compete for binding to PIG-F. We transfected CHO cells with FLAG-PIG-F, HA-mPig-o, and HA-msALDH plasmids, and increasing amounts of hGPI7 plasmid. FLAG-PIG-F was immunoprecipitated, and the co-precipitates were analyzed by Western blotting. The levels of HA-mPig-o co-precipitated with FLAG-PIG-F decreased with increasing amounts of the hGPI7 plasmid (Fig. 6A, top panel, left), whereas the expression levels of FLAG-PIG-F and HA-msALDH remained unaffected (bottom panel and top panel, right). Similar to the level of co-precipitated HA-mPig-o, the total expression levels of HA-mPig-o decreased with increasing amount of hGPI7 (top panel, right), suggesting that HA-mPig-o detached from PIG-F was unstable and degraded rapidly. We obtained similar results by changing the amount of mPig-o plasmids (data not shown). These results demonstrate that hGPI7 competes with PIG-O for binding to PIG-F and imply that the expression levels of hGPI7 are capable of limiting the expression levels of PIG-O.
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| DISCUSSION |
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First, we cloned hGPI7 and knocked it down by means of RNAi. When the hGPI7 mRNA level was reduced to 27% in HeLa cells by RNAi, H7 increased 5-fold, whereas H8 decreased (Fig. 3). Increased accumulation of H7 was also seen when hGPI7 knockdown was performed in class K K562 cells. Based on these results, we conclude that hGPI7 is involved in H7-to-H8 conversion.
Yeast Gpi7p, Gpi13p, and Mcd4p and their respective homologs hGPI7, PIG-O, and PIG-N form a family of EtNP-transferases. hGPI7 is closer to PIG-O (26% amino acid identity) than to PIG-N (20% identity), whereas PIG-O is closer to hGPI7 than to PIG-N (20% identity) (15, 16). Similar relationships are true among the yeast members, because the amino acid identities between Gpi7p and Gpi13p, Gpi7p and Mcd4p, and Gpi13p and Mcd4p are 24, 21, and 21%, respectively (13, 14). These structural relationships are consistent with their functional characteristics, namely their substrate specificities; hGPI7/Gpi7p and PIG-O/Gpi13p are involved in EtNP additions to the 6-position in mannose, whereas PIG-N/Mcd4p transfers EtNP to the 2-position (5, 9, 1316). We previously reported that PIG-O is associated with PIG-F (16). PIG-F is also involved in transferring EtNP to Man3 because PIG-F-defective mutant cells do not generate H7 and accumulate H6 (17), which is the immediate precursor of H7 (Fig. 1). PIG-F is a highly hydrophobic ER membrane protein of 20 kDa (17) with no significant homology to any other proteins with known functions. In the absence of PIG-F, PIG-O is unstable and its expression level is only 2025% of that in the presence of PIG-F (16). The PIG-F expression level is not dependent upon PIG-O. Therefore, PIG-F stabilizes PIG-O. PIG-F, however, does not bind to PIG-N (16). In the present study, we have shown that PIG-F binds to hGPI7 (Fig. 5, A and B). The observation that PIG-F binds to hGPI7 and PIG-O but not to PIG-N parallels the higher sequence identity of hGPI7 to PIG-O compared with PIG-N.
We also found that PIG-F stabilizes hGPI7 (Fig. 5C) similarly to its stabilization of PIG-O. The expression level of hGPI7 in the absence of PIG-F was one-half that in the presence of PIG-F. The complexes of PIG-O and PIG-F and hGPI7 and PIG-F are formed separately. Moreover, PIG-O and hGPI7 compete for binding with PIG-F (Fig. 6A). Therefore, when the amount of PIG-F is limited, the level of PIG-O is influenced by hGPI7. A higher level of hGPI7 results in a lower level of PIG-O and hence in lower generation of H7.
It is not known whether Gpi7p and/or Gpi13p are associated with Gpi11p, an S. cerevisiae homolog of PIG-F (13). The profile of accumulated GPI mannolipids in Gpi11p-defective cells is similar to that in Gpi7p-defective cells, but not to that in Gpi13p-defective cells. It is therefore possible that Gpi7p, but not Gpi13p, is dependent upon Gpi11p in S. cerevisiae.
The biological significance of GPI7 in yeast has been well studied. Most of the genes involved in GPI biosynthesis are essential for growth of S. cerevisiae. In contrast, GPI7 is not essential for growth, and deletion of gpi7 primarily causes phenotypes in the cell wall. The gpi7-null mutant is hypersensitive to Calcofluor White (36), has an increased chitin content, and has a decreased protein content (37). Consistent with these abnormalities, among the two forms of yeast GPI-anchored proteins, the expressions of cell wall proteins with the ceramide-type GPI are severely affected, whereas the expressions of plasma membrane proteins with the diacylglycerol-type GPI, such as Gas1p, are not affected (37). The basis for this selective effect on proteins with the ceramide-type GPI is most likely because of a defect in diacylglycerol-to-ceramide remodeling of GPI in the gpi7-null mutant (9). It was recently reported that Gpi7p is essential for separation of the daughter cells after cytokinesis. The GPI-anchored protein Egt2p, which is normally concentrated in the septum, was mislocalized in the gpi7 mutant. The EtNP side chain on Man2 is therefore important for correct targeting of GPI-anchored proteins in the daughter cells (38). Whether defective diacylglycerol-to-ceramide remodeling is related to defective targeting to the septum remains to be determined. In contrast to these advancements in studies on yeast GPI7, the biological significance of mammalian GPI7 has not yet been clarified. Because mammalian cells do not have a cell wall, mammalian GPI7 cannot have the same role as yeast Gpi7p but may be involved in processes such as remodeling of GPI or targeted transport of GPI-anchored proteins.
| FOOTNOTES |
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* This work was supported in part by grants from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, Culture and Technology of Japan. The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact. ![]()
Both authors contributed equally to this work. ![]()
|| Supported in part by Ministry of Health and Welfare, Korea, Grant 01-PJ10-PG6-01GM-02-002 and Korea Research Foundation Grant KRF-2004-003-E00019. ![]()

To whom correspondence should be addressed: Dept. of Immunoregulation, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, 3-1 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan. Tel.: 81-6-6879-8328; Fax: 81-6-6875-5233; E-mail: tkinoshi{at}biken.osaka-u.ac.jp.
1 The abbreviations used are: GPI, glycosylphosphatidylinositol; EtNP, ethanolamine phosphate; Man, mannose; CHO, Chinese hamster ovary; h, human; m, mouse; RNAi, RNA interference; ER, endoplasmic reticulum; GST, glutathione S-transferase; msALDH, microsomal aldehyde dehydrogenase; HA, hemagglutinin; KD, knockdown; H6, Man-Man-(EtNP)Man-GlcN-(acyl)PI; H7, EtNP-Man-Man-(EtNP)Man-GlcN-(acyl)PI; H8, EtNP-Man-(EtNP)Man-(EtNP)Man-GlcN-(acyl)PI. ![]()
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| REFERENCES |
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