The p24 proteins are not essential for vesicular transport in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

To investigate the factors involved in the sorting of cargo proteins into COPII endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to Golgi apparatus transport vesicles, we have created a strain of S. cerevisiae (p24Delta8) that lacks all eight members of the p24 family of transmembrane proteins (Emp24p, Erv25p, and Erp1p to Erp6p). The p24 proteins have been implicated in COPI and COPII vesicle formation, cargo protein sorting, and regulation of vesicular transport in eukaryotic cells. We find that p24Delta8 cells grow identically to wild type and show delays of invertase and Gas1p ER-to-Golgi transport identical to those seen in a single Deltaemp24 deletion strain. Thus, p24 proteins do not have an essential function in the secretory pathway. Instead, they may serve as quality control factors to restrict the entry of proteins into COPII vesicles.

Applications of protein mass spectrometry in cell biology.

Advances in mass spectrometry combined with accelerated progress in genome sequencing projects have facilitated the rapid identification of proteins by enzymatic digestion, mass analysis, and sequence database searching. Applications for this technology range from the surveillance of protein expression in cells, tissues, and whole organisms, to the identification of proteins and posttranslational modifications. Here we consider practical aspects of the application of mass spectrometry in cell biology and illustrate these with examples from our own laboratories.

Functional coupling of mammalian receptors to the yeast mating pathway using novel yeast/mammalian G protein alpha-subunit chimeras.

The expression of mammalian G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) in S. cerevisiae provides a powerful assay system for functional analysis, ligand identification and pharmaceutical screening. However, relatively few receptors have been coupled to the pheromone response pathway via the yeast G(alpha), Gpa1p, or chimeric yeast/mammalian G(alpha) subunits containing long C-terminal regions of mammalian G(alpha) proteins. We tested an extended range of seven such chimeras for G(alpha) sub-types of three major classes (G(alphai/o), G(alphas) and G(alphaq)), against eight human GPCRs (SST(2), SST(5), 5-HT(1A), 5-HT(1Dalpha), ML(1B), P2Y(1) and P2Y(2)). Although the G(alphai/o) chimeras increased the range of receptors that coupled efficiently, the G(alphas) and G(alphaq) chimeras were inactive when expressed using the GPA1 promoter. We describe 10 novel Gpa1p chimeras, designated 'transplants', in which the C-terminal five amino acids of Gpa1p were exchanged with mammalian residues. Coupling efficiency and ligand sensitivity improved significantly using the transplants. For the P2Y purinergic receptors, coupling could only be detected with the transplants; this is the first report of G(q) specificity coupling in yeast. Thus, the transplants offer major advantages over previously described approaches, in terms of both the range of receptors coupled and the efficiency of coupling.

Erp1p and Erp2p, partners for Emp24p and Erv25p in a yeast p24 complex.

Six new members of the yeast p24 family have been identified and characterized. These six genes, named ERP1-ERP6 (for Emp24p- and Erv25p-related proteins) are not essential, but deletion of ERP1 or ERP2 causes defects in the transport of Gas1p, in the retention of BiP, and deletion of ERP1 results in the suppression of a temperature-sensitive mutation in SEC13 encoding a COPII vesicle coat protein. These phenotypes are similar to those caused by deletion of EMP24 or ERV25, two previously identified genes that encode related p24 proteins. Genetic and biochemical studies demonstrate that Erp1p and Erp2p function in a heteromeric complex with Emp24p and Erv25p.

The import receptor for the peroxisomal targeting signal 2 (PTS2) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is encoded by the PAS7 gene.

The import of peroxisomal matrix proteins is dependent on one of two targeting signals, PTS1 and PTS2. We demonstrate in vivo that not only the import of thiolase but also that of a chimeric protein consisting of the thiolase PTS2 (amino acids 1-18) fused to the bacterial protein beta-lactamase is Pas7p dependent. In addition, using a combination of several independent approaches (two-hybrid system, co-immunoprecipitation, affinity chromatography and high copy suppression), we show that Pas7p specifically interacts with thiolase in vivo and in vitro. For this interaction, the N-terminal PTS2 of thiolase is both necessary and sufficient. The specific binding of Pas7p to thiolase does not require peroxisomes. Pas7p recognizes the PTS2 of thiolase even when this otherwise N-terminal targeting signal is fused to the C-terminus of other proteins, i.e. the activation domain of Gal4p or GST. These results demonstrate that Pas7p is the targeting signal-specific receptor of thiolase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and, moreover, are consistent with the view that Pas7p is the general receptor of the PTS2. Our observation that Pas7p also interacts with the human peroxisomal thiolase suggests that in the human peroxisomal disorders characterized by an import defect for PTS2 proteins (classical rhizomelic chondrodysplasia punctata), a functional homologue of Pas7p may be impaired.

PAS7 encodes a novel yeast member of the WD-40 protein family essential for import of 3-oxoacyl-CoA thiolase, a PTS2-containing protein, into peroxisomes.

To identify components of the peroxisomal import pathway in yeast, we have isolated pas mutants affected in peroxisome biogenesis. Two mutants assigned to complementation group 7 define a new gene, PAS7, whose product is necessary for import of thiolase, a PTS2-containing protein, but not for that of SKL (PTS1)-containing proteins, into peroxisomes. We have cloned PAS7 by complementation of the oleic acid non-utilizing phenotype of the pas7-1 strain. The DNA sequence predicts a 42.3 kDa polypeptide of 375 amino acids encoding a novel member of the beta-transducin related (WD-40) protein family. A Myc epitope-tagged Pas7p, expressed under the control of the CUP1 promotor, was functionally active. Subcellular localization studies revealed that in the presence of thiolase this epitope-tagged Pas7p in part associates with peroxisomes. However, in a thiolase-deficient mutant, Pas7p was entirely found in the cytoplasm. We suggest that Pas7p mediates the binding of thiolase to these organelles.

Two complementary approaches to study peroxisome biogenesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: forward and reversed genetics.

In order to investigate the mechanisms of peroxisome biogenesis and to identify components of the peroxisomal import machinery we studied these processes in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The forward genetic approach has led to pas-mutants (peroxisomal assembly) which fall into 12 complementation groups and allowed to identify 10 of the corresponding wild-type PAS genes (PAS 1-7, 9, 11 and 12). Recent sequence analysis data of some of these genes are beginning to provide first hints as to the possible function of their gene products. The PAS genes and their corresponding mutants are presently used to address some important questions of peroxisomal biogenesis. Reversed genetics has been started as a complementary approach to characterize especially the function of peroxisomal membrane proteins. For this purpose we describe a technique to isolate highly purified peroxisomes. This led to the identification of 21 polypeptides as constituents of this organelle. Some of them are presently sequenced.