Cytochemical characterization of Golgi apparatus in some filamentous fungi

Clathrin localization and dynamics in Aspergillus nidulans

Cell growth necessitates extensive membrane remodeling events including vesicle fusion or fission, processes that are regulated by coat proteins. The hyphal cells of filamentous fungi concentrate both exocytosis and endocytosis at the apex. This investigation focuses on clathrin in Aspergillus nidulans, with the aim of understanding its role in membrane remodeling in growing hyphae. We examined clathrin heavy chain (ClaH-GFP) which localized to three distinct subcellular structures: late Golgi (trans-Golgi equivalents of filamentous fungi), which are concentrated just behind the hyphal tip but are intermittently present throughout all hyphal cells; the region of concentrated endocytosis just behind the hyphal apex (the "endocytic collar"); and small, rapidly moving puncta that were seen trafficking long distances in nearly all hyphal compartments. ClaH localized to distinct domains on late Golgi, and these clathrin "hubs" dispersed in synchrony after the late Golgi marker PH^OSBP . Although clathrin was essential for growth, ClaH did not colocalize well with the endocytic patch marker fimbrin. Tests of FM4-64 internalization and repression of ClaH corroborated the observation that clathrin does not play an important role in endocytosis in A. nidulans. A minor portion of ClaH puncta exhibited bidirectional movement, likely along microtubules, but were generally distinct from early endosomes.

Functional morphology of the secretory pathway organelles in yeast

The glycoprotein secretory pathway of yeast serves mainly for cell surface growth and cell division. It involves a centrifugal transport of transit macromolecules among organelles, whose membranes contain resident proteins needed for driving the transport. These resident membrane proteins return by retrograde vesicular transport. Apart from this, the pathway involves endocytosis. The model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and vertebrate cells were found to contain very similar gene products regulating the molecular mechanism of glycoprotein transport, and the cellular mechanism of their secretion pathways was therefore also presumed to be identical. Biochemists have postulated that, in S. cerevisiae, the translocation of peptides through the endoplasmic reticulum membranes into the lumen of ER cisternae and the core glycosylation is followed by a vector-mediated transport into the functional cascade of the Golgi system cisternae and between them. This is the site of maturation and sorting of glycoproteins, before the ultimate transport by other vectors involving either secretion from the cells (exocytosis across the plasmalemma into the cell wall) or transport into the lysosome-like vacuole via a prevacuolar compartment, which serves at the same time as a primary endosome. The established cellular model of secretion deals with budding yeast; interphase yeast cells, in which the secretion is limited and which predominate in exponential cultures, have not been taken into consideration. The quality of organelle imaging in S. cerevisiae ultra-thin sections depends on the fixation technique used and on specimen contrasting by metals. The results achieved by combinations of different techniques differ mostly in the imaging of bilayers of membrane interfaces and the transparence of the matrix phase. Fixation procedures are decisive for the results of topochemical localisations of cellular antigenic components or enzyme activities, which form the basis of the following survey of functional morphology of organelles involved in the yeast secretory pathway. The existing results of these studies do not confirm all aspects of the vertebrate model of the Golgi apparatus proposed by molecular geneticists to hold for S. cerevisiae, and alternative models of the cellular mechanism of secretion in this yeast are, therefore, also discussed.

Cytochemical images of secretion in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and animal cells are different

Like in animal cells, the major secretory pathway of the ascomycetous budding yeast Saccharomyces (s.) cerevisiae consists of membrane-bound compartments which transport soluble and membrane (glyco)peptides to lysosomal vacuoles, cell wall, or out of the cell. The established model of the cellular machinery of the yeast secretory pathway was deduced largerly from molecular ex situ analyses and for budding yeast cells it was assumed to be identical with that of secretory animal cells. Interphase yeast cells were never considered. Glycosylation of peptides was detected in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and the putative Golgi cisternae. Coated membrane vesicles were assumed to transport intermediates into and within the Golgi cascade. Proteolytic trimming would occur in the last Golgi compartment. Golgi-derived membrane vesicles would serve for exocytosis or fuse with lysosomal vacuoles. In contrast to this notion, yeast cytologists showed specific features of secretion in S. cerevisiae and other Ascomycetes. Cytochemical observations in situ of both dividing and interphase yeast showed direct communication between nuclear envelope, ER and segregated Golgi cisternae. A new class of constitutive conveyors, coated protein globules smaller than membrane vesicles, was shown to exist throughout the cell cycle. The function of Golgi-derived membrane vesicles was constrained to promotion of exocytosis in budding yeast. Some of the Golgi apparatus functions were detected in both these classes of exocytotic conveyors. Uptake (phagocytosis) of transport conveyors and lipoprotein condensates has been shown to deliver enzymes and secretory compounds into vacuoles. This simplified machinery of secretion, postulated for S. cerevisiae, does not include the Golgi cascade.

Ultracytochemical evidence of Golgi functions in microvesicles at all phases of cell cycle in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The topical question of Golgi compartment identity in the ascomycetous yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is illustrated by a multiple ultracytochemical approach. For this eucaryotic single-cell organism the established scheme of secretory transport via a cascade of cisternae housing different functions of Golgi apparatus has been deduced principally of genetic and molecular analyses ex situ and confirms the mammalian secretion scheme. Nevertheless, ultracytochemical in situ localizations of enzyme activities engaged in secretion represented evidence for localization of important steps of secretory glycoprotein maturation in two morphologically distinct populations of transport microvesicles formed from endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi cisternae. Both types of microvesicles function in exocytosis or transport into lysosomal vacuoles and have identical charge. However, their presence differs in interphase and in budding cells of S. cerevisiae. Smooth, larger membrane bound microvesicles are conspicuous at the onset of budding and at construction of scars, while the coated, smaller microvesicles of globular ultrastructure are present constitutively, throughout the cell cycle. Because the established model of the yeast secretory path considers only the part of the budding phase preceding the onset of mitosis, an alternative scheme for the cellular mechanism of glycoprotein secretion in S. cerevisiae that distinguishes interphase and budding yeast, has been established. The lumen of microvesicles contains proteases catalysing maturation of the mating pheromone alpha-factor (yscIV, yscF), vacuolar protease yscY, alkaline phosphohydrolase, polyphosphorylated components of the bud scar and glycoproteins. The in situ approach also reveals a minimum level of alpha-factor precursor processing proteolytic activity at the budding phase of cells, a transient presence of polyphosphorylated compounds in the bud scars and their transport by microvesicles. Ultracytochemical reactions suggest that the nuclear envelope lumen houses certain functions attributed to endoplasmic reticulum and that some steps of outer-chain glycosylation may occur in microvesicles. Microvesicles which contain proteases and polyphosphorylated intermediates also appear in juvenile vacuoles (lysosomes). Ultracytochemical findings show the Golgi compartment of S. cerevisiae to consist not only of discrete endoplasmic cisternae, immunodetected by others as sites of outer chain alpha-1,6-mannosylation and of the Golgi membrane marker proteins Sec7p and Ypt1p, but also of microvesicles moving either to the cell plasma membrane or to vacuoles. The previously hypothesized hierarchy of segregated yeast Golgi cisternae was not revealed by ultracytochemical findings.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Histochemical localization of thiamine pyrophosphatase in the lomasomes in asci of Arthroderma vanbreuseghemii

Thiamine pyrophosphatase localization in asci of Arthroderma vanbreuseghemii was investigated histochemically by electron microscopy. The reaction product of this enzyme was demonstrated in some paramural membranous structures that are believed to represent lomasomes. This observation suggests that at least a certain number of lomasomes might be involved in cell wall synthesis and thus behave in a manner similar to the Golgi apparatus in higher eukaryotic cells.