TbG63, a golgin involved in Golgi architecture in Trypanosoma brucei

Basic Biology of Trypanosoma cruzi

The present review addresses basic aspects of the biology of the pathogenic protozoa Trypanosoma cruzi and some comparative information of Trypanosoma brucei. Like eukaryotic cells, their cellular organization is similar to that of mammalian hosts. However, these parasites present structural particularities. That is why the following topics are emphasized in this paper: developmental stages of the life cycle in the vertebrate and invertebrate hosts; the cytoskeleton of the protozoa, especially the sub-pellicular microtubules; the flagellum and its attachment to the protozoan body through specialized junctions; the kinetoplast-mitochondrion complex, including its structural organization and DNA replication; glycosome and its role in the metabolism of the cell; acidocalcisome, describing its morphology, biochemistry, and functional role; cytostome and the endocytic pathway; the organization of the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi complex; the nucleus, describing its structural organization during interphase and division; and the process of interaction of the parasite with host cells. The unique characteristics of these structures also make them interesting chemotherapeutic targets. Therefore, further understanding of cell biology aspects contributes to the development of drugs for chemotherapy.

A sophisticated, differentiated Golgi in the ancestor of eukaryotes

BACKGROUND

The Golgi apparatus is a central meeting point for the endocytic and exocytic systems in eukaryotic cells, and the organelle's dysfunction results in human disease. Its characteristic morphology of multiple differentiated compartments organized into stacked flattened cisternae is one of the most recognizable features of modern eukaryotic cells, and yet how this is maintained is not well understood. The Golgi is also an ancient aspect of eukaryotes, but the extent and nature of its complexity in the ancestor of eukaryotes is unclear. Various proteins have roles in organizing the Golgi, chief among them being the golgins.

RESULTS

We address Golgi evolution by analyzing genome sequences from organisms which have lost stacked cisternae as a feature of their Golgi and those that have not. Using genomics and immunomicroscopy, we first identify Golgi in the anaerobic amoeba Mastigamoeba balamuthi. We then searched 87 genomes spanning eukaryotic diversity for presence of the most prominent proteins implicated in Golgi structure, focusing on golgins. We show some candidates as animal specific and others as ancestral to eukaryotes.

CONCLUSIONS

None of the proteins examined show a phyletic distribution that correlates with the morphology of stacked cisternae, suggesting the possibility of stacking as an emergent property. Strikingly, however, the combination of golgins conserved among diverse eukaryotes allows for the most detailed reconstruction of the organelle to date, showing a sophisticated Golgi with differentiated compartments and trafficking pathways in the common eukaryotic ancestor.

The Trypanosome Flagellar Pocket Collar and Its Ring Forming Protein-TbBILBO1

Sub-species of Trypanosoma brucei are the causal agents of human African sleeping sickness and Nagana in domesticated livestock. These pathogens have developed an organelle-like compartment called the flagellar pocket (FP). The FP carries out endo- and exocytosis and is the only structure this parasite has evolved to do so. The FP is essential for parasite viability, making it an interesting structure to evaluate as a drug target, especially since it has an indispensible cytoskeleton component called the flagellar pocket collar (FPC). The FPC is located at the neck of the FP where the flagellum exits the cell. The FPC has a complex architecture and division cycle, but little is known concerning its organization. Recent work has focused on understanding how the FP and the FPC are formed and as a result of these studies an important calcium-binding, polymer-forming protein named TbBILBO1 was identified. Cellular biology analysis of TbBILBO1 has demonstrated its uniqueness as a FPC component and until recently, it was unknown what structural role it played in forming the FPC. This review summarizes the recent data on the polymer forming properties of TbBILBO1 and how these are correlated to the FP cytoskeleton.

The golgin tether giantin regulates the secretory pathway by controlling stack organization within Golgi apparatus

Golgins are coiled-coil proteins that play a key role in the regulation of Golgi architecture and function. Giantin, the largest golgin in mammals, forms a complex with p115, rab1, GM130, and soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptors (SNAREs), thereby facilitating vesicle tethering and fusion processes around the Golgi apparatus. Treatment with the microtubule destabilizing drug nocodazole transforms the Golgi ribbon into individual Golgi stacks. Here we show that siRNA-mediated depletion of giantin resulted in more dispersed Golgi stacks after nocodazole treatment than by control treatment, without changing the average cisternal length. Furthermore, depletion of giantin caused an increase in cargo transport that was associated with altered cell surface protein glycosylation. Drosophila S2 cells are known to have dispersed Golgi stacks and no giantin homolog. The exogenous expression of mammalian giantin cDNA in S2 cells resulted in clustered Golgi stacks, similar to the Golgi ribbon in mammalian cells. These results suggest that the spatial organization of the Golgi ribbon is mediated by giantin, which also plays a role in cargo transport and sugar modifications.

Differential selection of Golgi proteins by COPII Sec24 isoforms in procyclic Trypanosoma brucei

The Sec24 subunit of the coat protein complex II (COPII) has been implicated in selecting newly synthesized cargo from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) for delivery to the Golgi. The protozoan parasite, Trypanosoma brucei, contains two paralogs, TbSec24.1 and TbSec24.2, which were depleted using RNA interference in the insect form of the parasite. Depletion of either TbSec24.1 or TbSec24.2 resulted in growth arrest and modest inhibition of anterograde transport of the putative Golgi enzyme, TbGntB, and the secretory marker, BiPNAVRG-HA9. In contrast, depletion of TbSec24.1, but not TbSec24.2, led to reversible mislocalization of the Golgi stack proteins, TbGRASP and TbGolgin63. The latter accumulated in the ER. The localization of the COPI coatomer subunit, TbεCOP, and the trans Golgi network (TGN) protein, TbGRIP70, was largely unaffected, although the latter was preferentially lost from those Golgi that were not associated with the bilobe, a structure previously implicated in Golgi biogenesis. Together, these data suggest that TbSec24 paralogs can differentiate among proteins destined for the Golgi.

New components of the Golgi matrix

The eukaryotic Golgi apparatus is characterized by a stack of flattened cisternae that are surrounded by transport vesicles. The organization and function of the Golgi require Golgi matrix proteins, including GRASPs and golgins, which exist primarily as fiber-like bridges between Golgi cisternae or between cisternae and vesicles. In this review, we highlight recent findings on Golgi matrix proteins, including their roles in maintaining the Golgi structure, vesicle tethering, and novel, unexpected functions. These new discoveries further our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that maintain the structure and the function of the Golgi, as well as its relationship with other cellular organelles such as the centrosome.

Role of Rab GTPases in membrane traffic and cell physiology

Intracellular membrane traffic defines a complex network of pathways that connects many of the membrane-bound organelles of eukaryotic cells. Although each pathway is governed by its own set of factors, they all contain Rab GTPases that serve as master regulators. In this review, we discuss how Rabs can regulate virtually all steps of membrane traffic from the formation of the transport vesicle at the donor membrane to its fusion at the target membrane. Some of the many regulatory functions performed by Rabs include interacting with diverse effector proteins that select cargo, promoting vesicle movement, and verifying the correct site of fusion. We describe cascade mechanisms that may define directionality in traffic and ensure that different Rabs do not overlap in the pathways that they regulate. Throughout this review we highlight how Rab dysfunction leads to a variety of disease states ranging from infectious diseases to cancer.

Requirement for acetyl-CoA carboxylase in Trypanosoma brucei is dependent upon the growth environment

Trypanosoma brucei, the causative agent of human African trypanosomiasis, possesses two fatty acid synthesis pathways: a major de novo synthesis pathway in the ER and a mitochondrial pathway. The 2-carbon donor for both pathways is malonyl-CoA, which is synthesized from acetyl-CoA by Acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC). Here, we show that T. brucei ACC shares the same enzyme architecture and moderate ∼ 30% identity with yeast and human ACCs. ACC is cytoplasmic and appears to be distributed throughout the cell in numerous puncta distinct from glycosomes and other organelles. ACC is active in both bloodstream and procyclic forms. Reduction of ACC activity by RNA interference (RNAi) resulted in a stage-specific phenotype. In procyclic forms, ACC RNAi resulted in 50-75% reduction in fatty acid elongation and a 64% reduction in growth in low-lipid media. In bloodstream forms, ACC RNAi resulted in a minor 15% decrease in fatty acid elongation and no growth defect in culture, even in low-lipid media. However, ACC RNAi did attenuate virulence in a mouse model of infection. Thus the requirement for ACC in T. brucei is dependent upon the growth environment in two different life cycle stages.

FACT: functional annotation transfer between proteins with similar feature architectures

Background

The increasing number of sequenced genomes provides the basis for exploring the genetic and functional diversity within the tree of life. Only a tiny fraction of the encoded proteins undergoes a thorough experimental characterization. For the remainder, bioinformatics annotation tools are the only means to infer their function. Exploiting significant sequence similarities to already characterized proteins, commonly taken as evidence for homology, is the prevalent method to deduce functional equivalence. Such methods fail when homologs are too diverged, or when they have assumed a different function. Finally, due to convergent evolution, functional equivalence is not necessarily linked to common ancestry. Therefore complementary approaches are required to identify functional equivalents.

Results

We present the Feature Architecture Comparison Tool http://www.cibiv.at/FACT to search for functionally equivalent proteins. FACT uses the similarity between feature architectures of two proteins, i.e., the arrangements of functional domains, secondary structure elements and compositional properties, as a proxy for their functional equivalence. A scoring function measures feature architecture similarities, which enables searching for functional equivalents in entire proteomes. Our evaluation of 9,570 EC classified enzymes revealed that FACT, using the full feature, set outperformed the existing architecture-based approaches by identifying significantly more functional equivalents as highest scoring proteins. We show that FACT can identify functional equivalents that share no significant sequence similarity. However, when the highest scoring protein of FACT is also the protein with the highest local sequence similarity, it is in 99% of the cases functionally equivalent to the query. We demonstrate the versatility of FACT by identifying a missing link in the yeast glutathione metabolism and also by searching for the human GolgA5 equivalent in Trypanosoma brucei.

Conclusions

FACT facilitates a quick and sensitive search for functionally equivalent proteins in entire proteomes. FACT is complementary to approaches using sequence similarity to identify proteins with the same function. Thus, FACT is particularly useful when functional equivalents need to be identified in evolutionarily distant species, or when functional equivalents are not homologous. The most reliable annotation transfers, however, are achieved when feature architecture similarity and sequence similarity are jointly taken into account.

Multiple Rab GTPase binding sites in GCC185 suggest a model for vesicle tethering at the trans-Golgi

GCC185, a trans-Golgi network-localized protein predicted to assume a long, coiled-coil structure, is required for Rab9-dependent recycling of mannose 6-phosphate receptors (MPRs) to the Golgi and for microtubule nucleation at the Golgi via CLASP proteins. GCC185 localizes to the Golgi by cooperative interaction with Rab6 and Arl1 GTPases at adjacent sites near its C terminus. We show here by yeast two-hybrid and direct biochemical tests that GCC185 contains at least four additional binding sites for as many as 14 different Rab GTPases across its entire length. A central coiled-coil domain contains a specific Rab9 binding site, and functional assays indicate that this domain is important for MPR recycling to the Golgi complex. N-Terminal coiled-coils are also required for GCC185 function as determined by plasmid rescue after GCC185 depletion by using small interfering RNA in cultured cells. Golgi-Rab binding sites may permit GCC185 to contribute to stacking and lateral interactions of Golgi cisternae as well as help it function as a vesicle tether.