Retromer oligomerization drives SNX-BAR coat assembly and membrane constriction

Proteins exit from endosomes through tubular carriers coated by retromer, a complex that impacts cellular signaling, lysosomal biogenesis and numerous diseases. The coat must overcome membrane tension to form tubules. We explored the dynamics and driving force of this process by reconstituting coat formation with yeast retromer and the BAR-domain sorting nexins Vps5 and Vps17 on oriented synthetic lipid tubules. This coat oligomerizes bidirectionally, forming a static tubular structure that does not exchange subunits. High concentrations of sorting nexins alone constrict membrane tubes to an invariant radius of 19 nm. At lower concentrations, oligomers of retromer must bind and interconnect the sorting nexins to drive constriction. Constricting less curved membranes into tubes, which requires more energy, coincides with an increased surface density of retromer on the sorting nexin layer. Retromer-mediated crosslinking of sorting nexins at variable densities may thus tune the energy that the coat can generate to deform the membrane. In line with this, genetic ablation of retromer oligomerization impairs endosomal protein exit in yeast and human cells.

The PIKfyve complex regulates the early melanosome homeostasis required for physiological amyloid formation

The metabolism of PI(3,5)P2 is regulated by the PIKfyve, VAC14 and FIG4 complex, mutations in which are associated with hypopigmentation in mice. These pigmentation defects indicate a key, but as yet unexplored, physiological relevance of this complex in the biogenesis of melanosomes. Here, we show that PIKfyve activity regulates formation of amyloid matrix composed of PMEL protein within the early endosomes in melanocytes, called stage I melanosomes. PIKfyve activity controls the membrane remodeling of stage I melanosomes, which regulates PMEL abundance, sorting and processing. PIKfyve activity also affects stage I melanosome kiss-and-run interactions with lysosomes, which are required for PMEL amyloidogenesis and the establishment of melanosome identity. Mechanistically, PIKfyve activity promotes both the formation of membrane tubules from stage I melanosomes and their release by modulating endosomal actin branching. Taken together, our data indicate that PIKfyve activity is a key regulator of the melanosomal import-export machinery that fine tunes the formation of functional amyloid fibrils in melanosomes and the maintenance of melanosome identity.This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.

Rab4A organizes endosomal domains for sorting cargo to lysosome-related organelles

Sorting endosomes (SEs) are the regulatory hubs for sorting cargo to multiple organelles, including lysosome-related organelles, such as melanosomes in melanocytes. In parallel, melanosome biogenesis is initiated from SEs with the processing and sequential transport of melanocyte-specific proteins toward maturing melanosomes. However, the mechanism of cargo segregation on SEs is largely unknown. Here, RNAi screening in melanocytes revealed that knockdown of Rab4A results in defective melanosome maturation. Rab4A-depletion increases the number of vacuolar endosomes and disturbs the cargo sorting, which in turn lead to the mislocalization of melanosomal proteins to lysosomes, cell surface and exosomes. Rab4A localizes to the SEs and forms an endosomal complex with the adaptor AP-3, the effector rabenosyn-5 and the motor KIF3, which possibly coordinates cargo segregation on SEs. Consistent with this, inactivation of rabenosyn-5, KIF3A or KIF3B phenocopied the defects observed in Rab4A-knockdown melanocytes. Further, rabenosyn-5 was found to associate with rabaptin-5 or Rabip4/4' (isoforms encoded by Rufy1) and differentially regulate cargo sorting from SEs. Thus, Rab4A acts a key regulator of cargo segregation on SEs.This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.

PMEL Amyloid Fibril Formation: The Bright Steps of Pigmentation

In pigment cells, melanin synthesis takes place in specialized organelles, called melanosomes. The biogenesis and maturation of melanosomes is initiated by an unpigmented step that takes place prior to the initiation of melanin synthesis and leads to the formation of luminal fibrils deriving from the pigment cell-specific pre-melanosomal protein (PMEL). In the lumen of melanosomes, PMEL fibrils optimize sequestration and condensation of the pigment melanin. Interestingly, PMEL fibrils have been described to adopt a typical amyloid-like structure. In contrast to pathological amyloids often associated with neurodegenerative diseases, PMEL fibrils represent an emergent category of physiological amyloids due to their beneficial cellular functions. The formation of PMEL fibrils within melanosomes is tightly regulated by diverse mechanisms, such as PMEL traffic, cleavage and sorting. These mechanisms revealed increasing analogies between the formation of physiological PMEL fibrils and pathological amyloid fibrils. In this review we summarize the known mechanisms of PMEL fibrillation and discuss how the recent understanding of physiological PMEL amyloid formation may help to shed light on processes involved in pathological amyloid formation.

Discovery of novel membrane binding structures and functions

The function of a protein is determined by its intrinsic activity in the context of its subcellular distribution. Membranes localize proteins within cellular compartments and govern their specific activities. Discovering such membrane-protein interactions is important for understanding biological mechanisms and could uncover novel sites for therapeutic intervention. We present a method for detecting membrane interactive proteins and their exposed residues that insert into lipid bilayers. Although the development process involved analysis of how C1b, C2, ENTH, FYVE, Gla, pleckstrin homology (PH), and PX domains bind membranes, the resulting membrane optimal docking area (MODA) method yields predictions for a given protein of known three-dimensional structures without referring to canonical membrane-targeting modules. This approach was tested on the Arf1 GTPase, ATF2 acetyltransferase, von Willebrand factor A3 domain, and Neisseria gonorrhoeae MsrB protein and further refined with membrane interactive and non-interactive FAPP1 and PKD1 pleckstrin homology domains, respectively. Furthermore we demonstrate how this tool can be used to discover unprecedented membrane binding functions as illustrated by the Bro1 domain of Alix, which was revealed to recognize lysobisphosphatidic acid (LBPA). Validation of novel membrane-protein interactions relies on other techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), which was used here to map the sites of micelle interaction. Together this indicates that genome-wide identification of known and novel membrane interactive proteins and sites is now feasible and provides a new tool for functional annotation of the proteome.

Lipid sorting and multivesicular endosome biogenesis

Intracellular organelles, including endosomes, show differences not only in protein but also in lipid composition. It is becoming clear from the work of many laboratories that the mechanisms necessary to achieve such lipid segregation can operate at very different levels, including the membrane biophysical properties, the interactions with other lipids and proteins, and the turnover rates or distribution of metabolic enzymes. In turn, lipids can directly influence the organelle membrane properties by changing biophysical parameters and by recruiting partner effector proteins involved in protein sorting and membrane dynamics. In this review, we will discuss how lipids are sorted in endosomal membranes and how they impact on endosome functions.

Viral infection controlled by a calcium-dependent lipid-binding module in ALIX

ALIX plays a role in nucleocapsid release during viral infection, as does lysobisphosphatidic acid (LBPA). However, the mechanism remains unclear. Here we report that LBPA is recognized within an exposed site in ALIX Bro1 domain predicted by MODA, an algorithm for discovering membrane-docking areas in proteins. LBPA interactions revealed a strict requirement for a structural calcium tightly bound near the lipid interaction site. Unlike other calcium- and phospholipid-binding proteins, the all-helical triangle-shaped fold of the Bro1 domain confers selectivity for LBPA via a pair of hydrophobic residues in a flexible loop, which undergoes a conformational change upon membrane association. Both LBPA and calcium binding are necessary for endosome association and virus infection, as are ALIX ESCRT binding and dimerization capacity. We conclude that LBPA recruits ALIX onto late endosomes via the calcium-bound Bro1 domain, triggering a conformational change in ALIX to mediate the delivery of viral nucleocapsids to the cytosol during infection.

Structure, dynamics, and energetics of lysobisphosphatidic acid (LBPA) isomers

Lysobisphosphatidic acid (LBPA), or bis(monoacylglycerol)phosphate, is a very interesting lipid, that is mainly found in late endosomes. It has several intriguing characteristics, which differ from those of other animal glycerophospholipids, that may be related to its specific functions, particularly in the metabolism of cholesterol. Its phosphodiester group is bonded at the sn-1 (sn-1') positions of the glycerols rather than at sn-3 (sn-3'); the position of the two fatty acid chains is still under debate but, increasingly, arguments favor the sn-2, sn-2' position in the native molecule, whereas isolation procedures or acidic conditions lead to the thermodynamically more stable sn-3, sn-3' structure. Because of these peculiar features, it can be expected that LBPA shape and interactions with membrane lipids and proteins are related to its structure at the molecular level. We applied quantum mechanical methods to study the structures and stabilities of the 2,2' and 3,3' LBPA isomers, using a step-by-step procedure from glycerol to precursors (in vitro syntheses) and to the final isoforms. The structures of the two positional LBPA isomers are substantially different, showing that the binding positions of the fatty acid chains on the glycerol backbone determine the shape of the LBPA molecule and thus, possibly, its functions. The 3,3' LBPA structures obtained are more stable with respect to the 2,2' form, as expected from experiment. If one argues that the in vivo synthesis starts from the present glycerol conformers and considering the most stable bis(glycero)phosphate structures, the 2,2' isoform should be the most probable isomer.

Biogenesis of caveolae: stepwise assembly of large caveolin and cavin complexes

We analyzed the assembly of caveolae in CV1 cells by following the fate of newly synthesized caveolin-1 (CAV1), caveolin-2 and polymerase I and transcript release factor (PTRF)/cavin-1 biochemically and using live-cell imaging. Immediately after synthesis in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), CAV1 assembled into 8S complexes that concentrated in ER exit sites, due to a DXE sequence in the N-terminal domain. The coat protein II (COPII) machinery allowed rapid transport to the Golgi complex. Accumulating in the medial Golgi, the caveolins lost their diffusional mobility, underwent conformational changes, associated with cholesterol, and eventually assembled into 70S complexes. Together with green fluorescent protein-glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol (GFP-GPI), the newly assembled caveolin scaffolds underwent transport to the plasma membrane in vesicular carriers distinct from those containing vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) G-protein. After arrival, PTRF/cavin-1 was recruited to the caveolar domains over a period of 25 min or longer. PTRF/cavin-1 itself was present in 60S complexes that also formed in the absence of CAV1. Our study showed the existence of two novel large complexes containing caveolar coat components, and identified a hierarchy of events required for caveolae assembly occurring stepwise in three distinct locations--the ER, the Golgi complex and the plasma membrane.

In vitro budding of intralumenal vesicles into late endosomes is regulated by Alix and Tsg101

Endosomes along the degradation pathway leading to lysosomes accumulate membranes in their lumen and thus exhibit a characteristic multivesicular appearance. These lumenal membranes typically incorporate down-regulated EGF receptor destined for degradation, but the mechanisms that control their formation remain poorly characterized. Here, we describe a novel quantitative biochemical assay that reconstitutes the formation of lumenal vesicles within late endosomes in vitro. Vesicle budding into the endosome lumen was time-, temperature-, pH-, and energy-dependent and required cytosolic factors and endosome membrane components. Our light and electron microscopy analysis showed that the compartment supporting the budding process was accessible to endocytosed bulk tracers and EGF receptor. We also found that the EGF receptor became protected against trypsin in our assay, indicating that it was sorted into the intraendosomal vesicles that were formed in vitro. Our data show that the formation of intralumenal vesicles is ESCRT-dependent, because the process was inhibited by the K173Q dominant negative mutant of hVps4. Moreover, we find that the ESCRT-I subunit Tsg101 and its partner Alix control intralumenal vesicle formation, by acting as positive and negative regulators, respectively. We conclude that budding of the limiting membrane toward the late endosome lumen, which leads to the formation of intraendosomal vesicles, is controlled by the positive and negative functions of Tsg101 and Alix, respectively.