A regulatory light chain of ciliary outer arm dynein in Tetrahymena thermophila.

Ciliary beat frequency is primarily regulated by outer arm dyneins (22 S dynein). Chilcote and Johnson (Chilcote, T. J., and Johnson, K. A. (1990) J. Biol. Chem. 256, 17257-17266) previously studied isolated Tetrahymena 22 S dynein, identifying a protein p34, which showed cAMP-dependent phosphorylation. Here, we characterize the molecular biochemistry of p34 further, demonstrating that it is the functional ortholog of the 22 S dynein regulatory light chain, p29, in Paramecium. p34, thiophosphorylated in isolated axonemes in the presence of cAMP, co-purified with 22 S dynein and not with inner arm dynein (14 S dynein). Isolated 22 S dynein containing phosphorylated p34 showed approximately 70% increase in in vitro microtubule translocation velocity compared with its unphosphorylated counterpart. Extracted p34 rebound to isolated 22 S dynein from either Tetrahymena or Paramecium but not to 14 S dynein from either ciliate. Binding of radiolabeled p34 to 22 S dynein was competitive with p29. Phosphorylated p34 was not present in axonemes isolated from a mutant lacking outer arms. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis followed by phosphorimaging revealed at least five phosphorylated p34-related spots, consistent with multiple phosphorylation sites in p34 or perhaps multiple isoforms of p34. These new features suggest that a class of outer arm dynein light chains including p34 regulates microtubule sliding velocity and consequently ciliary beat frequency through phosphorylation.

Microtubule and motor-dependent endocytic vesicle sorting in vitro.

Endocytic vesicles undergo fission to sort ligand from receptor. Using quantitative immunofluorescence and video imaging, we provide the first in vitro reconstitution of receptor-ligand sorting in early endocytic vesicles derived from rat liver. We show that to undergo fission, presegregation vesicles must bind to microtubules (MTs) and move upon addition of ATP. Over 13% of motile vesicles elongate and are capable of fission. After fission, one vesicle continues to move, whereas the other remains stationary, resulting in their separation. On average, almost 90% receptor is found in one daughter vesicle, whereas ligand is enriched by approximately 300% with respect to receptor in the other daughter vesicle. Although studies performed on polarity marked MTs showed approximately equal plus and minus end-directed motility, immunofluorescence microscopy revealed that kinesins, but not dynein, were associated with these vesicles. Motility and fission were prevented by addition of 1 mM 5'-adenylylimido-diphosphate (AMP-PNP, an inhibitor of kinesins) or incubation with kinesin antibodies, but were unaffected by addition of 5 microM vanadate (a dynein inhibitor) or dynein antibodies. These studies indicate an essential role of kinesin-based MT motility in endocytic vesicle sorting, providing a system in which factors required for endocytic vesicle processing can be identified and characterized.

Evidence for a novel affinity mechanism of motor-assisted transport along microtubules.

In microtubule (MT) translocation assays, using colloidal gold particles coupled to monoclonal tubulin antibodies to mark positions along MTs, we found that relative motion is possible between the gold particle and an MT, gliding on dynein or kinesin. Such motion evidently occurred by an affinity release and rebinding mechanism that did not require motor activity on the particle. As the MTs moved, particles drifted to the trailing edge of the MT and then were released. Sometimes the particles transferred from one MT to another, moving orthogonally. Although motion of the particles was uniformly rearward, movement was toward the (-) or (+) end of the MT, depending on whether dynein or kinesin, respectively, was used in the assay. These results open possibilities for physiological mechanisms of organelle and other movement that, although dependent on motor-driven microtubule transport, do not require direct motor attachment between the organelle and the microtubule. Our observations on the direction of particle drift and time of release may also provide confirmation in a dynamic system for the conclusion that beta tubulin is exposed at the (+) end of the MT.

A Sec7-related protein in Paramecium.

We have cloned and sequenced a SEC7-related gene in Paramecium tetraurelia that contains an open reading frame for 1135 amino acids encoding a 133 kDa protein, PSec7. Sec7, first identified in vesicular trafficking mutants in yeast, and its phylogenetic homologues function as guanine-nucleotide exchange factors for small G-proteins such as ARF (ADP-ribosylation factor). The deduced amino acid sequence in PSec7 for the motifs that form the ARF binding site are more than 70% identical to yeast Sec7 and similarly identical to ARNO, the human ARF exchange factor, with correct positioning of the critical glutamic acid residue within the motif region. Overall, the identity of PSec7 to yeast Sec7 is 32%. The deduced amino acid sequence also has five sequences that resemble IQ motifs, EF hand binding domains found in all myosins, and two pleckstrin homology domains. Similar sequences are present in yeast Sec7 and other Sec7-related molecules. A protein kinase A phosphorylation site may also be present. Southern blots suggest that a single gene encodes PSec7. Northern blots show that the message encoding PSec7 is induced on deciliation, followed by ciliogenesis, which suggests a role for PSec7 in cilia such as transport or targeting of ciliary membrane components.

Assessment of inner dynein arm structure and possible function in ciliary and flagellar axonemes.

The construction and assessment of a three-dimensional computer-generated model of inner dynein arms on a 96-nm repeat unit of an axonemal doublet is described. The model is based on published electron micrographs of axonemes from Tetrahymena cilia and eel sperm, which were prepared using several different techniques: negative stain, freeze etch, and thin section. The inner arm structure is represented as three inner dynein arm complexes containing four inner dynein arms (IDAs), three dyads, and one single-headed arm, each capable of bridging the interdoublet gap. The IDA structures in the model have been correlated with the domains containing dynein heavy-chain isoforms mapped by several authors using genetic analyses of Chlamydomonas mutants. The model is consistent with micrographic evidence from axonemes of cilia and flagella from other organisms that led previously to conflicting structural interpretations. In this reconciling interpretation, the different alignments of the IDAs relative to the corresponding outer dynein arms observed in micrographs of differently prepared samples, result from the IDAs being arrested at different stages of their cycles of activity in each preparation. By interpolating between these positions of arrest, cycles of activity are proposed for each of the IDAs during which the arms attach to the neighbouring doublet microtubule and drive it tipwards.

The 29 kDa light chain that regulates axonemal dynein activity binds to cytoplasmic dyneins.

In earlier studies, Hamasaki et al. (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 88:7918-7922, 1991) and Barkalow et al. (J. Cell Biol. 126:727-735, 1994) found that cAMP- and Ca2+-sensitive phosphorylation of a 29 kDa dynein light chain (p29) extracted from 22S axonemal dynein of Paramecium, regulates the velocity of in vitro microtubule translocation and ciliate swimming speed. In this study we report evidence of recombination of p29 to cytoplasmic dyneins from both rat liver and Paramecium, as well as to a 22S dynein precursor molecule, based on immunoprecipitation and force filtration data. Immunoprecipitation also provides additional evidence for the binding of p29 to 22S axonemal dynein. The results suggest that p29 might regulate cytoplasmic dynein, as well as axonemal dynein function in Paramecium, and that a homologue of p29 may exist in rat liver and other mammalian cells.

Keith R. Porter and the first electron micrograph of a cell.

Keith R. Porter died on 2 May 1997. Although he was especially renowned for the work on cell structure recounted here, his impact on cell biology was not confined to the early electron-microscopic studies of ultrastructure. To many, he was the father of cell biology, who helped establish many of the enduring institutions and ideas in the field. He had great biological intuition and feeling for a wide range of organisms and was greatly concerned with problems of cell shape and movement. He used ultrastructure and simple physiological or biochemical experiments to inter functional activities for cell organelles, including not only the endoplasmic reticulum, which he named, but the sarcoplasmic reticulum and T-tubules of muscle cells, microtubules, cilia, coated vesicles and more. He also pioneered cell studies with the high-voltage electron microscope, which led him to the idea of structural integration in the cell cytoplasm, an idea that is only now being pursued with success.

Three-dimensional organization of rat hepatocyte cytoskeleton: relation to the asialoglycoprotein endocytosis pathway.

Analysis by confocal microscopy has revealed features of the microtubule network of rat hepatocytes in culture, establishing the three-dimensional disposition of the microtubule-based cytoskeleton, its relation to the actin-based cytoskeleton and to ligand-containing endosomes during receptor-mediated endocytosis and the alterations in its structure and disposition by the microtubule pertubant, Taxol. By co-localization studies, we have been able to demonstrate that the microtubules have a significant role in receptor-mediated endocytosis of asialoglycoproteins in this cell. Asialoorosomucoid-containing endosomes attach to widely spaced arrays of microtubules running under the baso-lateral surface of the hepatocytes 5-15 minutes after the initiation of endocytosis and then travel along microtubule paths to become concentrated with microtubules near the centrosome and at bile canaliculi after 30-60 minutes of receptor-mediated endocytosis. Receptor-mediated endocytosis is affected, but not abolished by Taxol, which inhibits the rate of asialoorosomucoid degradation at the same concentrations as those that disrupt microtubule and cytoplasmic dynein distribution, and that prevent the concentration of endosomes centrally. The results support suggestions that asialoorosomucoid-containing endosomes are captured by microtubules just below the actin layer at the cell periphery and these are actively transported centrally along microtubules, possibly by cytoplasmic dynein, so that the concentration of endosomes near the centrosome, and the subsequent efficient lysosomal degradation of ligand, are consequences of the confluence of microtubules in this region.

Mechanochemical aspects of axonemal dynein activity studied by in vitro microtubule translocation.

We have determined the relationship between microtubule length and translocation velocity from recordings of bovine brain microtubules translocating over a Paramecium 22S dynein substratum in an in vitro assay chamber. For comparison with untreated samples, the 22S dynein has been subjected to detergent and/or to pretreatments that induce phosphorylation of an associated 29 kDa light chain. Control and treated dyneins have been used at the same densities in the translocation assays. In any given condition, translocation velocity (v) shows an initial increase with microtubule length (L) and then reaches a plateau. This situation may be represented by a hyperbola of the general form v = aL/(L+b), which is formally analogous to the Briggs-Haldane relationship, which we have used to interpret our data. The results indicate that the maximum translocation velocity Vo(= a) is increased by pretreatment, whereas the length constant KL(= b), which corresponds to Km, does not change with pretreatment, implying that the mechanochemical properties of the pretreated dyneins differ from those of control dyneins. The conclusion that KL is constant for defined in vitro assays rules out the possibility that the velocity changes seen are caused by changes in geometry in the translocation assays or by the numbers of dyneins or dynein heads needed to produce maximal translocational velocity. From our analysis, we determine that f, the fraction of cycle time during which the dynein is in the force-generating state, is small--roughly 0.01, comparable to the f determined previously for heavy meromyosin. The practical limits of these mechanochemical changes imply that the maximum possible ciliary beat frequency is about 120 Hz, and that in the physiological range of 5-60 Hz, beat frequency could be controlled by varying the numbers of phosphorylated outer arm dyneins along an axonemal microtubule.

Interaction of the microtubule cytoskeleton with endocytic vesicles and cytoplasmic dynein in cultured rat hepatocytes.

In a recent study (Goltz, J.S., Wolkoff, A.W., Novikoff, P.M., Stockert, R.J., and Satir, P. (1992) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 89, 7026-7030), we found that ligand- and receptor-containing endocytic vesicles bind to endogenous microtubules in vitro after 60 min of receptor-mediated endocytosis of asialo-orosomucoid. In the presence of ATP, ligand-containing endocytic vesicles are released from microtubules, while those containing receptor are not. We hypothesized that cytoplasmic dynein may associate with ligand-containing, but not receptor-containing, domains of endocytic vesicles and might be involved in the movement of ligand-containing vesicles along microtubules during sorting of ligand from receptor. Direct evidence in support of this hypothesis has been obtained in the present study. Binding of ligand-containing vesicles to microtubules correlates highly (p < 0.001) with binding of dynein, but not kinesin, under a variety of conditions. Binding of receptor-containing vesicles to microtubules is independent of both cytoplasmic dynein and kinesin binding. Tight association of cytoplasmic dynein with a population of ligand-containing vesicles is seen directly by immunoprecipitation. These results support the view that in receptor-mediated endocytosis, ligand-containing vesicles become bound to microtubules by cytoplasmic dynein. While receptor domains of endosomes remain attached to microtubules in an ATP-independent manner, ligand-containing domains might be moved away toward pericentrosomal lysosomes by this motor molecule.

Ciliary beat frequency is controlled by a dynein light chain phosphorylation.

cAMP-dependent phosphorylation of a 29-kDa axonemal polypeptide (p29) increases the swimming speed of permeabilized Paramecium and in vitro translocation velocity of bovine brain microtubules over 22S dynein extracted from Paramecium axonemes. A quantitative relationship between microtubule translocation velocity and beat frequency is developed. We conclude that p29 acts as a regulatory light chain of outer arm dynein in the control of ciliary beat frequency.

Biophysical aspects and modelling of ciliary motility.

The dominance of viscous forces in the generation of propulsive thrust by cilia is emphasised. Fourier analysis indicates that ciliary bends consist of circular arcs joined by linear segments; this arc-line shape appears to be a property associated with the molecular mechanism responsible for bending the cilium and is unchanged by variations in the external viscous loading on the organelle. The flexibility of a computer-generated model of axonemal structure is demonstrated by the incorporation of recent data concerning the surface lattice of the microtubules. Computer simulations using the model show that predictions based on stochastic, rather than co-ordinated, dynein arm activity provide a qualitative match to experimental observations of microtubules gliding over fields of dynein molecules.