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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 281, Issue 9, 6096-6105, March 3, 2006
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From the Department of Physiology, Semmelweis University, P. O. Box 259, 1444 Budapest, Hungary
Received for publication, September 28, 2005 , and in revised form, December 20, 2005.
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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Small GTPases, including members of the Rab and Rho families, are involved in the organization of receptor-mediated endocytosis. Rab GTPases regulate the budding, trafficking, and fusion of endocytic vesicles at the different compartments (4, 5). Rab5, one of the best characterized Rab GTPases, has a role in the formation of sorting endosomes. Rab5 together with early endosomal antigen 1 regulates fusion between endocytic vesicles and sorting endosomes (6). Besides participating in the regulation of fusion, Rab5 is also being recognized as an important link between microtubules and endosomes, thus having a role in the regulation of the movement of endosomes. Rab11 is present in the ERC and trans-Golgi-network membranes and has a role in the regulation of endocytic recycling (7). Several data suggest that members of the Rho family also participate in the regulation of receptor-mediated endocytosis. Rac1 and RhoA regulate the internalization of ligand-bound receptors (8), whereas RhoD and RhoB were described to associate with endocytic compartments (9, 10). The Cdc42 protein, which is a key regulator of cell polarity, was described to have a role in the endocytosis of EGF-receptors (11, 12), and it also regulates endocytosis in polarized epithelial cells (13).
The activity of small GTPases is controlled by guanine nucleotide exchange factors, GTPase activating proteins (GAPs), and guanine nucleotide dissociation inhibitors (14). According to data base searches there are at least 60 different Rho GTPase activating proteins (15). The exact biological role of these regulatory proteins is poorly understood, and we know even less about how their activity is controlled. A common feature of small GTPase regulators is that besides their regulatory domains they also contain various conserved protein domains which represent potential sites for regulation and target these proteins to various intracellular compartments (16). Although much is known about the intracellular distribution of Rho GTPases, the subcellular localization and molecular interactions of their regulatory proteins remain elusive. We were interested in the intracellular localization and function of the p50RhoGAP protein.
P50RhoGAP (also called Cdc42GAP) was the first identified GTPase activating protein for Rho GTPases (17, 18). The protein was purified from human spleen and found to increase the endogenous GTPase activity of Rho, Rac, and Cdc42 (17, 18). P50RhoGAP is a 439-amino acid protein that contains an N-terminal domain homologous to the yeast Sec14 protein. The GAP domain is located at the C terminus, and a proline-rich sequence motif is present between the two domains. Crystallization studies revealed the structure of the GTPase activating domain of p50RhoGAP both alone and in complex with Cdc42 (19, 20). Importantly, a crystal structure of the yeast Sec14 protein, which shows substantial homology to the N-terminal part of p50RhoGAP, was also determined (21). Recent data suggest that p50RhoGAP exists in an autoinhibited conformation stabilized by amino acids 148 and 169197, and the prenyl group of small GTPases has a role in releasing the intramolecular inhibition (22). In contrast to the progress in structural analysis, we have little information about the biological function of this protein.
Here we describe that p50RhoGAP is localized to endosomal membranes via the N-terminal Sec14-like domain of the protein and colocalizes with internalized transferrin and EGF receptor during endocytosis. We show that overexpression of the Sec14-like domain or the full-length GAP protein inhibits transferrin uptake. We also demonstrate that the Sec14-like domain forms a molecular complex with Rab11, providing a link between Rab and Rho GTPases in the process of endocytosis.
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
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P50RhoGAP Antibody
RhoGAP antibody was purified from rabbit serum after intracutaneous injections of glutathione S-transferase-p50GAP-(198439) fusion protein into rabbits. The serum was affinity-purified using Affi-Gel 10 beads (Bio-Rad) loaded with the antigen.
Cell Culture
HeLa cells were grown in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium with GlutaMAX I (Invitrogen) supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum, 50 units/ml penicillin, and 50 µg/ml streptomycin in a 5% humidified CO2 incubator at 37 °C.
Transient Transfections
Transfections were carried out using FuGENE 6 (Roche Applied Science) or Lipofectamine 2000 (Invitrogen). siRNA was transfected at 100 nM concentrations 48 h before the experiments using Oligofectamine (Invitrogen).
siRNA Target Sequence
The target sequences on p50RhoGAP mRNA started at 875 nucleotides from the start codon (see Fig. 1) and at 127 nucleotides from the start codon (not shown). The siRNA was synthesized either by the Ambion Silencer siRNA construction kit (Ambion inc, Austin, TX) or ordered from Qiagen (Hilden, Germany). Scrambled siRNAs with identical nucleotide composition were used as controls.
DNA Constructs
To create fluorescent protein-tagged p50RhoGAP constructs, the full-length p50RhoGAP coding sequence was amplified from glutathione S-transferase-p50RhoGAP using 5'-CCGCTCGAGGCCATGGATCCGCTCTCAGAGCTGCAGG-3' and 5'-GGAATTCGGAGCCCGCTGGGGTCCGGGCTTG-3' PCR primers, and after digestion the PCR product was ligated between the XhoI and EcoRI sites of pEGFP-N1 vector. Sec14-GFP construct was produced similarly using 5'-GGAATTCCCTTCTGTGTGGATTTCAGGAAGTCGTC-3' as the antisense primer. The YFP and RedFP constructs of p50RhoGAP and of Sec14 domain were constructed using the same restriction sites.
The L173D single amino acid change mutants of Sec14GFP, Sec14YFP, Sec14V5, p50GFP, p50YFP, and p50V5 and the R282A mutant of p50GFP were produced using the Stratagene QuikChange site-directed mutagenesis kit following the manufacturer's instructions. To verify mutations, mutant plasmids were sequenced. GFP-Rab5 and GFP-Rab11 used in this work were described earlier in Hunyady et al. (23). The RedFP-C1 plasmid used to create red fluorescent protein-Rab11 was described in Campbell et al. (24).
Transferrin Assays
Microscopic Analysis of Transferrin UptakeHeLa cells on coverslips were incubated in extracellular medium (called H-medium, which contained 145 mM NaCl, 5 mM KCl, 1 mM MgCl2, 0,8 mM CaCl2, 10 mM HEPES, 5 mM glucose, pH 7.4) for 20 min at 37 °C, then medium was replaced with H-medium containing 10 µg/ml Alexa568-transferrin for the indicated times.
Flow Cytometric Analysis of Transferrin UptakeHeLa cells grown in 12-well plates were transfected with the Sec14-GFP or p50GFP constructs 2430 h before the assay. After incubation in H-medium for 20 min, 10 µg/ml Alexa647-transferrin was added to the cells for the indicated times. Cells were then washed once with ice-cold H-medium then 2x with ice-cold PBS, and then trypsin-EDTA was added for 2 min at 37 °C. Dislodged cells were resuspended and washed once in ice-cold PBS and then fixed in 1% paraformaldehyde for 15 min. Finally, cells were washed 3x in PBS and kept at 4 °C until flow cytometric measurement was done. GFP intensity was measured in FL-1, and Alexa647 intensity of GFP-positive cells was measured in FL-4. The correct gating of GFP-positive cells was set using nontransfected cells as negative controls.
Flow Cytometric Analysis of Transferrin RecyclingHeLa cells grown in 12-well plates were transfected with the Sec14-GFP or p50GFP constructs 2430 h before the assay. After loading the cells with 10 µg/ml Alexa647-transferrin in H-medium for 30 min at 37 °C, cells were washed 2x with ice-cold H-medium and then incubated in "chase" medium (H-medium containing 10% fetal calf serum, 0.1% bovine serum albumin, 100 µg/ml transferrin) for the indicated times at 37 °C. Finally, cells were washed once in ice-cold chase medium without transferrin and two times in ice-cold PBS, trypsinized, and processed further for flow cytometric measurements as described above. Where indicated, 50 µM monensin was added 30 min before labeled transferrin and was present during the whole experiment.
Western Blot Experiments
Cells lysed on ice in Laemmli sample buffer were boiled and run on 10% polyacrylamide gels. After blotting onto nitrocellulose membranes, blocking was carried out in PBS, 5% milk, and 0.1% Tween 20 for 1 h at room temperature. After incubating the membranes with the first antibody for 1 h at room temperature, membranes were washed 5x in PBS 0.1% Tween 20, horseradish peroxidase-labeled anti-rabbit secondary antibody was used in a 1:5000 dilution, and signals were detected on FUJI Super RX films using the enhanced chemiluminescence method.
Immunofluorescent Labeling and Confocal Laser MicroscopyCells grown on coverslips were fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde in PBS then rinsed 5x in PBS and incubated for 10 min in PBS containing 100 mM glycine. Coverslips were washed 2x in PBS and permeabilized in PBS containing 1% bovine serum albumin and 0.1% Triton X-100 for 20 min at room temperature. After 1 h of blocking in PBS containing 3% bovine serum albumin, cells were incubated with the primary antibody in PBS plus 2% bovine serum albumin, washed thoroughly 6x in PBS, and incubated with the secondary antibody for 1 h and finally washed 6x in PBS again. Coverslips were mounted using Mowiol 488 antifade reagent (prepared from polyvinyl alcohol 488, glycerol, H2O and Tris, pH 8.5).
Confocal images were collected on an LSM510 laser scanning confocal unit (Carl Zeiss) with a 63x 1.4 numerical aperture plan Apochromat and a 40x 1.3 numerical aperture plan Neofluar objective (Carl Zeiss). Excitation was with 25-milliwatt argon laser emitting 488 nm and a 1.0-milliwatt helium/neon laser emitting at 543 nm. Emissions were collected using a 500530-nm band pass filter to collect Alexa488 and GFP and a 560-nm long pass filter to collect Alexa568 and red fluorescent protein emission. Usually images from optical slices of 12-µm thickness were acquired. Cross-talk of the fluorophores was negligible.
Bioluminescence Resonance Energy Transfer (BRET) MeasurementsHeLa cells were plated on 96-well plates (1.5 x 104 cells/well) appropriate for luminescent measurements and transfected on the same day using FuGENE 6 transfection reagent. Bioluminescence resonance energy transfer was measured the next day on a Mithras LB940 (Bertold Technologies) multilabel reader using F485 (20 nm) and F530 (25 nm) band pass filters for coelenterazine and YFP emission, respectively. For the standard, normalized BRET ratio, energy transfer between luciferase Rab11 constructs and YFP-tagged p50RhoGAP constructs was calculated as described earlier (25): [(530-bg)YFP-transfected cells/(480-bg)YFP-transfected cells]-[(530-bg)V5*transfected cells/(480-bg)V5-transfected cells], where bg is the background count from nontransfected cells, and the asterisk (*) represents nonfluorescent V5 epitope-tagged p50RhoGAP plasmid, used as the control.
| RESULTS |
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Next we used confocal microscopy to determine the intracellular distribution of endogenous p50RhoGAP. In HeLa cells, we observed strong juxtanuclear staining, whereas less intense signal was observed over the cytoplasm (Fig. 2A). A similar staining pattern was observed in A431 cells and in the SH-S5Y neuroblastoma cells (data not shown). When HeLa cells were transfected with p50RhoGAP-GFP fusion protein, we observed similar juxtanuclear localization of the recombinant protein (Fig. 2D). Because both endocytic compartments and the Golgi complex are located in the vicinity of the nucleus, we investigated the localization of p50RhoGAP in relation to these organelles. First we examined the localizations of p50RhoGAP and transferrin receptor, a well characterized marker for endosomes. When the cells were stained for the transferrin receptor, we observed significant overlap of the two signals in the perinuclear region (Fig. 2, B and C). Similarly to the endogenous protein, the p50RhoGAP-GFP fusion protein also showed colocalization with transferrin receptor (Fig. 2, E and F). The perinuclear localization of endosomal compartments is maintained by anchoring to microtubules (3). Therefore, we examined the effect of the microtubule-depolymerizing agent nocodazole on the distribution of p50RhoGAP. As is shown in Fig. 2, G and H, nocodazole treatment caused redistribution of p50RhoGAP from the perinuclear region to the entire cytoplasm. Next we studied the effect of low temperature (4 °C), a condition that also interferes with the polymerization of microtubules. Fig. 2I shows that after incubation at 4 °C, p50RhoGAP did not localize to the perinuclear region but became distributed throughout the cytoplasm.
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Although the transferrin receptor undergoes constitutive endocytosis, internalization of the EGF receptor is induced by the receptor-ligand binding. In experiments using Alexa-labeled EGF, we could show that p50RhoGAP also localized to endosomes when endocytosis was initiated by receptor ligand binding (data not shown).
Sec14 Domain of p50RhoGAP Is Responsible for the Endosomal TargetingWe went on to determine which part of the protein was responsible for the endosomal localization. P50RhoGAP is a 439-amino acid protein that contains an N-terminal domain homologous to the yeast Sec14 protein (27). We expressed the isolated Sec14-like domain as a GFP fusion protein and studied the intracellular localization of the protein. Similarly to the whole-length protein, Sec14-GFP localized to the perinuclear region where it co-localized with internalized transferrin (Fig. 5, AC) and the transferrin receptor (data not shown). High level expression of the Sec14 domain induced the formation of enlarged, immobile vesicular and tubular structures, which were also present in the cell periphery (Fig. 5. DE) and were positive for labeled transferrin. In other experiments we introduced a point mutation into the Sec14-like domain. The Leu-173 residue is present in the yeast Sec14 protein at identical positions, and according to crystallographic studies, it contributes to the formation of the hydrophobic lipid binding surface in yeast Sec14 (21). HeLa cells expressed the mutant protein in similar amounts to the wild-type Sec14-like domain, but the protein showed diffuse cytoplasmic localization without enrichment in the perinuclear region (Fig. 5F). The L173D mutation also inhibited the perinuclear localization of the p50RhoGAP protein (Fig. 5G). We mutated the conserved amino acid Arg-282 in the GAP domain and Pro-235 in the proline-rich region of p50RhoGAP; however, these mutations failed to change the localization of the protein (data not shown). In summary, these experiments suggested that the Sec14-like domain localizes p50RhoGAP to endosomes.
When we studied the colocalization of Sec14-GFP with fluorescent transferrin, we noticed that cells which expressed the Sec14-like domain showed a diminished transferrin uptake (Fig. 6, A and B). To further characterize this effect, we used flow cytometry to measure transferrin uptake. In these experiments we also observed an inhibitory effect of the Sec14-like domain (Fig. 6C), whereas overexpression of the L173D mutant Sec14-GFP did not affect transferrin uptake (Fig. 6D). In further experiments we examined if the overexpression of Sec14-like domain had any effect on endosomal recycling. To answer this question we preloaded the cells with Alexa-transferrin and measured its release in the presence of unlabeled transferrin. Figs. 6, E and F, show that the Sec14-like domain also interfered with endosomal recycling, and this inhibitory effect was not present when we used the L173D mutant form of the protein. Next we examined if the inhibitory effect on endosomal recycling was entirely responsible for the reduced transferrin uptake. In these experiments we preincubated the cells in the presence of monensin, an inhibitor of endosomal recycling (28). In our experiments the inhibitory effect of monensin was confirmed by measuring a complete inhibition of the chase of Alexa647-transferrin from loaded HeLa cells (not shown). Importantly in monensin-treated cells the Sec14-like domain still effectively inhibited the uptake of transferrin (Fig. 6, G and H), indicating that beside inhibiting endosomal recycling, the Sec14-like domain interferes with earlier steps of the endocytic process.
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P50RhoGAP Interacts with Rab11 through Its Sec14-like Domain Members of the Rab family have an important role in endocytic trafficking. Among them Rab11 was shown to be present on the ERC, where it probably regulates traffic through this organelle. Because Rab11 is considered to be a specific marker of the ERC, we were interested if p50RhoGAP colocalized with Rab11. We expressed a Rab11-GFP fusion protein in HeLa cells and studied its relation to the endogenously expressed p50RhoGAP (Fig. 8, AF). The two proteins showed high level of colocalization in the perinuclear region of the cell. Interestingly, in Rab11-expressing cells the localization of endogenous p50RhoGAP was characteristically changed in a way that p50RhoGAP was enriched in Rab11-positive vesicles and tubules (Fig. 8, DF) and showed less intense staining in the proximity of the nucleus. A mutant form of Rab11 (7) that is locked in a GDP-bound state showed no colocalization with p50RhoGAP, suggesting that GTP binding is necessary for the colocalization (data not shown). Similarly a high level of colabeling was observed when Rab11-red fluorescent protein was expressed along with Sec14-GFP (Fig. 8, GI). Although Rab11 is mainly localized to the ERC, another member of the family, Rab5, is present on sorting endosomes (29). We were interested in the relation of p50RhoGAP to Rab5. In HeLa cells Rab5-GFP showed little perinuclear localization, but it was present in dispersed vesicles in the cell periphery (Fig. 8K). This pattern was in agreement with its localization to sorting endosomes. Although p50RhoGAP was not present in peripheral vesicles, colabeling was observed in more central Rab5-positive structures (Fig. 8L). This observation is in agreement with the previous reports, where partial overlap was observed between Rab5- and Rab11-positive endocytic compartments (30).
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| DISCUSSION |
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Currently it is unclear which Rho family small GTPase would be the in vivo substrate of p50RhoGAP. Because we have not observed p50RhoGAP at the plasma membrane or on peripheral vesicles, it is unlikely that the protein has a role in the regulation of the GTPase activity of Rac1 and RhoA during the first steps of receptor internalization. Based on its in vitro activity, p50RhoGAP was previously described as Cdc42GAP. While this manuscript was in preparation, Wang et al. (34) showed that P50RhoGAP (Cdc42GAP)-deficient embryonic fibroblasts displayed increased activation of Cdc42. In HeLa cells, Cdc42 is probably not the physiological substrate of p50RhoGAP, since brefeldin A caused rapid redistribution of Cdc42 from the Golgi apparatus to the cytosol, whereas the localization of p50RhoGAP was resistant to BFA treatment (Fig. 4). Furthermore, overexpression of p50RhoGAP had no effect on the intracellular distribution of endogenous Cdc42, and the two proteins did not colocalize. Based on its localization to the ERC and to some extent to the early endosomes, it is more likely that RhoD and/or RhoB could be the physiological substrates of p50RhoGAP, since these small GTPases were described at similar intracellular locations (9, 10).
P50RhoGAP is a 439-amino acid protein that contains an N-terminal domain homologous to the yeast Sec14 protein. In our experiments we found that the Sec14-like domain of p50RhoGAP was responsible for the localization of p50RhoGAP to endosomal membranes. The Sec14 protein was originally identified in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In the yeast, Sec14 functions as a phosphatidylinositol transfer protein that is essential for transport of proteins from the Golgi complex. The yeast Sec14 protein has two domains, the N-terminal helical domain with a role in lipid transfer and a C-terminal lipid-interacting domain (21). Protein modules, which are homologous to Sec14, have been recognized in several mammalian proteins, including regulators of small GTPases such as the GTPase exchange factor proteins Dbl, Dbs and Trio (35, 36). Among RhoGAP proteins, p50RhoGAP and its recently described homolog BPGAP1 contain a Sec14-like domain (37). The function of this protein motif in small GTPase regulators is largely unknown. In the GTPase exchange factor protein Dbs the Sec14-like domain has an inhibitory effect on the transforming potential of Dbs, and removal of this part of the protein results in redistribution of Dbs from its perinuclear localization to the plasma membrane (36). It is possible that Sec14-like domains of small GTPase regulators, similarly to their yeast homolog,
also bind phospholipids. In fact, p50RhoGAP was isolated from neutrophil granulocyte cytosol through its binding to phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate beads, although the binding was relatively weak (38). Furthermore, in phosphatidylinositol array experiments the Sec14-like domain of Dbs showed phosphatidylinositol binding with a preference toward phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (36). However, a using similar technique we were unable to detect phosphatidylinositol binding either by the isolated Sec14-like domain of p50RhoGAP or by the full-length protein (data not shown), although we cannot exclude that such binding can occur in vivo. In support of this possibility we found that a mutation of a highly conserved leucine (Leu-173), which is thought to contribute to a lipid binding pocket in a similar position in Sec14, completely abolished the characteristic localization to the ERC and the molecule became evenly distributed in the cytosol (Fig. 5). We frequently observed large, vesicular structures in cells overexpressing the Sec14-like domain that probably resulted from the expansion of endosomal compartments. The appearance of these structures indicated that the Sec14-like domain somehow interfered with the movements and/or fusion-fission process of endosomal vesicles. Cells with this phenotype also showed decreased transferrin internalization (Fig. 6). The reduced uptake of transferrin is only partially explained by inhibited endosomal recycling, since the Sec14-like domain inhibited transferrin uptake under conditions when endosomal recycling was blocked. These observations suggest that Sec14-like domain interferes with the endocytic process at multiple steps. The importance of this domain was further strengthened by experiments where we showed that overexpression of the full-length protein also inhibited transferrin uptake in a Sec14-like domain-dependent way (Fig. 7).
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subunit of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase was recently shown to have GTPase activating effect on Rab proteins, but in our experiments p50RhoGAP did not influence the GTPase activity of Rab11 (data not shown). The lack of a direct regulatory effect suggests that p50RhoGAP is more likely involved in connecting the function of Rab GTPases to Rho GTPases. To our knowledge this is the first demonstration of a potential link between the two signaling networks. | FOOTNOTES |
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1 To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: 361-266-2755; Fax: 361-266-7480; E-mail: geiszt{at}puskin.sote.hu.
2 The abbreviations used are: ERC, endocytic recycling compartment; BRET, bioluminescence resonance energy transfer; GAP, GTPase activating protein; PBS, phosphate-buffered saline; GFP, green fluorescent protein; BFA, brefeldin A; YFP, yellow fluorescent protein; EGF, epidermal growth factor; siRNA, small interfering RNA. ![]()
3 R. Rojas, W. G. Ruiz, E. Wang, C. L. Kinlough, P. A. Poland, R. P. Hughey, K. W. Dunn, and G. Apodaca, submitted for publication. ![]()
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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, and Beáta Molnár for expert technical assistance. Éva Karászi provided professional help for flow cytometric measurements. | REFERENCES |
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