Colocalization of fluorescence and Raman microscopic images for the identification of subcellular compartments: a validation study.

A major promise of Raman microscopy is the label-free detailed recognition of cellular and subcellular structures. To this end, identifying colocalization patterns between Raman spectral images and fluorescence microscopic images is a key step to annotate subcellular components in Raman spectroscopic images. While existing approaches to resolve subcellular structures are based on fluorescence labeling, we propose a combination of a colocalization scheme with subsequent training of a supervised classifier that allows label-free resolution of cellular compartments. Our colocalization scheme unveils statistically significant overlapping regions by identifying correlation between the fluorescence color channels and clusters from unsupervised machine learning methods like hierarchical cluster analysis. The colocalization scheme is used as a pre-selection to gather appropriate spectra as training data. These spectra are used in the second part as training data to establish a supervised random forest classifier to automatically identify lipid droplets and nucleus. We validate our approach by examining Raman spectral images overlaid with fluorescence labelings of different cellular compartments, indicating that specific components may indeed be identified label-free in the spectral image. A Matlab implementation of our colocalization software is available at .

Rho proteins of plants--functional cycle and regulation of cytoskeletal dynamics.

Rho-related ROP proteins are molecular switches that essentially regulate a wide variety of processes. Of central interest is their influence on the plant cytoskeleton by which they affect vital processes like cell division, growth, morphogenesis, and pathogen defense. ROPs switch between GTP- and GDP-bound conformations by strictly regulated nucleotide exchange and GTP-hydrolysis, and only the active GTP-form interacts with downstream effectors to ultimately provoke a biological response. However, the mode of action of the engaged regulators and effectors as well as their upstream and downstream interaction partners have long been largely unknown. As opposed to analogous systems in animals and fungi, plants use specific GTPase activating proteins (RopGAPs) with a unique domain composition and novel guanine nucleotide exchange factors (RopGEFs) with a probable link to cell surface receptors. Moreover, plants comprise novel effector molecules and adapters connecting ROPs to mostly unknown downstream targets on the route to the cytoskeleton. This review aims to summarize recent knowledge on the molecular mechanisms and reaction cascades involved in ROP dependent cytoskeletal rearrangements, addressing the structure and function of the unusual RopGAPs, RopGEFs and effectors, and the upstream and downstream pathways linking ROPs to cell receptor-like kinases, actin filaments, and microtubules.

The phosphomimetic mutation of an evolutionarily conserved serine residue affects the signaling properties of Rho of plants (ROPs).

Plant ROP (Rho of plants) proteins form a unique subgroup within the family of Rho-type small G-proteins of eukaryotes. In this paper we demonstrate that the phosphomimetic mutation of a serine residue conserved in all Rho proteins affects the signaling properties of plant ROPs. We found that the S74E mutation in Medicago ROP6 and Arabidopsis ROP4 prevented the binding of these proteins to their plant-specific upstream activator the plant-specific ROP nucleotide exchanger (PRONE)-domain-containing RopGEF (guanine nucleotide exchange factor) protein and abolished the PRONE-mediated nucleotide exchange reaction in vitro. Structural modeling supported the hypothesis that potential phosphorylation of the S74 residue interferes with the binding of the PRONE-domain to the adjacent plant-specific R76 residue which plays an important role in functional ROP-PRONE interaction. Moreover, we show that while the binding of constitutively active MsROP6 to the effector protein RIC (ROP-interactive CRIB-motif-containing protein) was not affected by the S74E mutation, the capability of this mutated protein to bind and activate the RRK1 kinase in vitro was reduced. These observations are in agreement with the morphology of tobacco pollen tubes expressing mutant forms of yellow fluorescent protein (YFP):MsROP6. The S74E mutation in MsROP6 had no influence on pollen tube morphology and attenuated the phenotype of a constitutively active form of MsROP6. The presented Medicago and Arabidopsis data support the notion that the phosphorylation of the serine residue in ROPs corresponding to S74 in Medicago ROP6 could be a general principle for regulating ROP activation and signaling in plants.

Interactions in the pollen-specific receptor-like kinases-containing signaling network.

The pollen-specific receptor-like kinases (PRKs) from Solanum lycopersicum, LePRK1 and LePRK2, are believed to be involved in the regulation of pollen germination and pollen tube growth. They appear to be part of a multimeric complex in which the transmembranic LePRKs presumably have a key position in transducing exogenous signals through the plasma membrane. Here, we focused on extra- and intracellular interactions involving the LePRKs. We show in yeast two-hybrid experiments a cross-interaction of putative PRK-ligands, the oligomerization of LePRK2 and a direct contact of LePRKs to activated Rho proteins of plants (ROPs). Moreover, we observed that pollen-specific RopGEFs, which catalyze ROP activation and may be regulated by PRK interaction, are active in vitro while autoinhibition seems to occur in vivo. We suggest that activation of RopGEFs as a checkpoint in PRK signal transduction is a more complex event including further components in planta. Our findings point to some new aspects in PRK-mediated signal transduction implying a LePRK2 complex with different signaling activity and a further direct control of LePRKs by activated ROP.

3D structure of a binary ROP-PRONE complex: the final intermediate for a complete set of molecular snapshots of the RopGEF reaction.

Guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) catalyze the activation of GTP-binding proteins (G proteins) in a multi-step reaction comprising intermediary complexes with and without nucleotide. Rho proteins of plants (ROPs) are activated by novel RopGEFs with a catalytic PRONE domain. We have previously characterized structures of GDP-bound ROP and a ternary complex between plant-specific ROP nucleotide exchanger (PRONE) and ROP including loosely bound GDP. Now, we complete the molecular snapshots of the RopGEF reaction with the nucleotide-free ROP-PRONE structure at 2.9 A. The binary complex surprisingly closely resembles the preceding ternary intermediate including an unusually intact P-loop in the G protein. A striking difference is the prominent contact of the invariant P-loop lysine to a conserved switch II glutamate in ROP, favoring a key role of this interaction in driving out the nucleotide. The nucleotide-free state is supported by additional interactions involving the essential WW-motif in PRONE. We propose that this GEF region stabilizes the intact P-loop conformation, which facilitates re-association with a new nucleotide and further promotes the overall exchange reaction. With our novel structure, we provide further insights into the nucleotide exchange mechanism and present a first example of the complete GEF reaction at a molecular level.

Molecular basis for the substrate specificity of plant guanine nucleotide exchange factors for ROP.

Plant G proteins of the ROP/RAC family regulate cellular processes including cytoskeletal rearrangement in polar growth. Activation of the ROP molecular switch is triggered by guanine nucleotide exchange factors. Plant-specific RopGEFs are exclusively active on ROPs despite their high homology to animal Rho proteins. Based on a sequence comparison of ROPs vs. animal Rho proteins together with structural data on distinct ROPs, we identified unique substrate determinants of RopGEF specificity by mutational analysis: asparagine 68 next to switch II, arginine 76 of a putative phosphorylation motif and the Rho insert are essential for substrate recognition by RopGEFs. These data also provide first evidence for a function of the Rho insert in interactions with GEFs.

Structural evidence for a common intermediate in small G protein-GEF reactions.

Rho of plants (Rop) proteins belong to the superfamily of small GTP-binding (G) proteins and are vital regulators of signal transduction in plants. In order to become activated, Rop proteins need to exchange GDP for GTP, an intrinsically slow process catalyzed by guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs). RopGEFs show no homology to animal RhoGEFs, and the catalytic mechanism remains elusive. GEF-catalysed nucleotide exchange proceeds via transient ternary and stable binary complexes. While a number of structural studies have analyzed binary nucleotide-free G protein-GEF complexes, very little is known about the ternary complexes. Here we report the X-ray structure of the catalytic PRONE domain of RopGEF8 from Arabidopsis thaliana, both alone and in a ternary complex with Rop4 and GDP. The features of the latter complex, a transient intermediate of the exchange reaction never directly observed before, suggest a common mechanism of catalyzed nucleotide exchange applicable to small G proteins in general.