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Gerrit van Meer

Publications and source records attributed to Gerrit van Meer.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Cellular lipidomics.

The cellular lipidome comprises over 1000 different lipids. Most lipids look similar having a polar head and hydrophobic tails. Still, cells recognize lipids with exquisite specificity. The functionality of lipids is determined by their local concentration, which varies between organelles, between the two leaflets of the lipid bilayer and even within the lateral plane of the membrane. To incorporate function, cellular lipidomics must not only determine which lipids are present but also the concentration of each lipid at each specific intracellular location in time and the lipid's interaction partners. Moreover, cellular lipidomics must include the enzymes of lipid metabolism and transport, their specificity, localization and regulation. Finally, it requires a thorough understanding of the physical properties of lipids and membranes, especially lipid-lipid and lipid-protein interactions. In the context of a cell, the complex relationships between metabolites can only be understood by viewing them as an integrated system. Cellular lipidomics provides a framework for understanding and manipulating the vital role of lipids, especially in membrane transport and sorting and in cell signaling.

Animals↗
PubMed2005

A comprehensive classification system for lipids.

Lipids are produced, transported, and recognized by the concerted actions of numerous enzymes, binding proteins, and receptors. A comprehensive analysis of lipid molecules, "lipidomics," in the context of genomics and proteomics is crucial to understanding cellular physiology and pathology; consequently, lipid biology has become a major research target of the postgenomic revolution and systems biology. To facilitate international communication about lipids, a comprehensive classification of lipids with a common platform that is compatible with informatics requirements has been developed to deal with the massive amounts of data that will be generated by our lipid community. As an initial step in this development, we divide lipids into eight categories (fatty acyls, glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, sterol lipids, prenol lipids, saccharolipids, and polyketides) containing distinct classes and subclasses of molecules, devise a common manner of representing the chemical structures of individual lipids and their derivatives, and provide a 12 digit identifier for each unique lipid molecule. The lipid classification scheme is chemically based and driven by the distinct hydrophobic and hydrophilic elements that compose the lipid. This structured vocabulary will facilitate the systematization of lipid biology and enable the cataloging of lipids and their properties in a way that is compatible with other macromolecular databases.

Database Management Systems↗
PubMed2005

Brilliant lipids.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Cell Membrane↗
PubMed2004

Natural phosphatidylcholine is actively translocated across the plasma membrane to the surface of mammalian cells.

The cell surface of eukaryotic cells is enriched in choline phospholipids, whereas the aminophospholipids are concentrated at the cytosolic side of the plasma membrane by the activity of one or more P-type ATPases. Lipid translocation has been investigated mostly by using short chain lipid analogs because assays for endogenous lipids are inherently complicated. In the present paper, we optimized two independent assays for the translocation of natural phosphatidylcholine (PC) to the cell surface based on the hydrolysis of outer leaflet phosphoglycerolipids by exogenous phospholipase A2 and the exchange of outer leaflet PC by a transfer protein. We report that PC reached the cell surface in the absence of vesicular traffic by a pathway that involved translocation across the plasma membrane. In erythrocytes, PC that was labeled at the inside of the plasma membrane was translocated to the cell surface with a half-time of 30 min. This translocation was probably mediated by an ATPase, because it required ATP and was vanadate-sensitive. The inhibition of PC translocation by glibenclamide, an inhibitor of various ATP binding cassette transporters, and its reduction in erythrocytes from both Abcb1a/1b and Abcb4 knockout mice, suggest the involvement of ATP binding cassette transporters in natural PC cell surface translocation. The relative importance of the outward translocation of PC as compared with the well characterized fast inward translocation of phosphatidylserine for the overall asymmetric phospholipid organization in plasma membranes remains to be established.

ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters↗
PubMed2004

Tracking down lipid flippases and their biological functions.

The various organellar membranes of eukaryotic cells display striking differences in the composition, leaflet distribution and transbilayer movement of their lipids. In membranes such as the endoplasmic reticulum, phospholipids can move readily across the bilayer, aided by membrane proteins that facilitate a passive equilibration of lipids between both membrane halves. In the plasma membrane, and probably also in the late Golgi and endosomal compartments, flip-flop of phospholipids is constrained and subject to a dynamic, ATP-dependent regulation that involves members of distinct protein families. Recent studies in yeast, parasites such as Leishmania, and mammalian cells have identified several candidates for lipid flippases, and whereas some of these serve a fundamental role in the release of lipids from cells, others appear to have unexpected and important functions in vesicular traffic: their activities are required to support vesicle formation in the secretory and endocytic pathways.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗
PubMed2004

Membrane lipids and vesicular traffic.

Lipids were long considered to be passive passengers of carrier vesicles with the single role of sealing the transport container. We now know that specific phospholipids are required for efficient fusion, while others facilitate budding and fission. Moreover, the various polyphosphoinositides assist in the recruitment from the cytosol of proteins of the transport machinery. Finally, the segregation of membrane lipids into different fluid phases appears to serve as a 'lipid raft' mechanism for protein sorting at various stages of the secretory and endocytic pathways. The current challenge is to understand how proteins control the metabolism and subcellular localization, and thereby the activity, of the various lipids.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

The cell biology of glycosphingolipids.

Glycosphingolipids, a family of heterogeneous lipids with biophysical properties conserved from fungi to mammals, are key components of cellular membranes. Because of their tightly packed backbone, they have the ability to associate with other sphingolipids and cholesterol to form microdomains called lipid rafts, with which a variety of proteins associate. These microdomains are thought to originate in the Golgi apparatus, where most sphingolipids are synthesized, and are enriched at the plasma membrane. They are involved in an increasing number of processes, including sorting of proteins by allowing selectivity in intracellular membrane transport. Apart from being involved in recognition and signaling on the cell surface, glycosphingolipids may fulfill unexpected roles on the cytosolic surface of cellular membranes.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

The fate and function of glycosphingolipid glucosylceramide.

In higher eukaryotes, glucosylceramide is the simplest member and precursor of a fascinating class of membrane lipids, the glycosphingolipids. These lipids display an astounding variation in their carbohydrate head groups, suggesting that glycosphingolipids serve specialized functions in recognition processes. It is now realized that they are organized in signalling domains on the cell surface. They are of vital importance as, in their absence, embryonal development is inhibited at an early stage. Remarkably, individual cells can live without glycolipids, perhaps because their survival does not depend on glycosphingolipid-mediated signalling mechanisms. Still, these cells suffer from defects in intracellular membrane transport. Various membrane proteins do not reach their intracellular destination, and, indeed, some intracellular organelles do not properly differentiate to their mature stage. The fact that glycosphingolipids are required for cellular differentiation suggests that there are human diseases resulting from defects in glycosphingolipid synthesis. In addition, the same cellular differentiation processes may be affected by defects in the degradation of glycosphingolipids. At the cellular level, the pathology of glycosphingolipid storage diseases is not completely understood. Cell biological studies on the intracellular fate and function of glycosphingolipids may open new ways to understand and defeat not only lipid storage diseases, but perhaps other diseases that have not been connected to glycosphingolipids so far.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Association of the Golgi UDP-galactose transporter with UDP-galactose:ceramide galactosyltransferase allows UDP-galactose import in the endoplasmic reticulum.

UDP-galactose reaches the Golgi lumen through the UDP-galactose transporter (UGT) and is used for the galactosylation of proteins and lipids. Ceramides and diglycerides are galactosylated within the endoplasmic reticulum by the UDP-galactose:ceramide galactosyltransferase. It is not known how UDP-galactose is transported from the cytosol into the endoplasmic reticulum. We transfected ceramide galactosyltransferase cDNA into CHOlec8 cells, which have a defective UGT and no endogenous ceramide galactosyltransferase. Cotransfection with the human UGT1 greatly stimulated synthesis of lactosylceramide in the Golgi and of galactosylceramide in the endoplasmic reticulum. UDP-galactose was directly imported into the endoplasmic reticulum because transfection with UGT significantly enhanced synthesis of galactosylceramide in endoplasmic reticulum membranes. Subcellular fractionation and double label immunofluorescence microscopy showed that a sizeable fraction of ectopically expressed UGT and ceramide galactosyltransferase resided in the endoplasmic reticulum of CHOlec8 cells. The same was observed when UGT was expressed in human intestinal cells that have an endogenous ceramide galactosyltransferase. In contrast, in CHOlec8 singly transfected with UGT 1, the transporter localized exclusively to the Golgi complex. UGT and ceramide galactosyltransferase were entirely detergent soluble and form a complex because they could be coimmunoprecipitated. We conclude that the ceramide galactosyltransferase ensures a supply of UDP-galactose in the endoplasmic reticulum lumen by retaining UGT in a molecular complex.

Animals↗
PubMed2003

Drs2p-related P-type ATPases Dnf1p and Dnf2p are required for phospholipid translocation across the yeast plasma membrane and serve a role in endocytosis.

Plasma membranes in eukaryotic cells display asymmetric lipid distributions with aminophospholipids concentrated in the inner and sphingolipids in the outer leaflet. This asymmetry is maintained by ATP-driven lipid transporters whose identities are unknown. The yeast plasma membrane contains two P-type ATPases, Dnf1p and Dnf2p, with structural similarity to ATPase II, a candidate aminophospholipid translocase from bovine chromaffin granules. Loss of Dnf1p and Dnf2p virtually abolished ATP-dependent transport of NBD-labeled phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylserine, and phosphatidylcholine from the outer to the inner plasma membrane leaflet, leaving transport of sphingolipid analogs unaffected. Labeling with trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid revealed that the amount of phosphatidylethanolamine exposed on the surface of Deltadnf1Deltadnf2 cells increased twofold relative to wild-type cells. Phosphatidylethanolamine exposure by Deltadnf1Deltadnf2 cells further increased upon removal of Drs2p, an ATPase II homolog in the yeast Golgi. These changes in lipid topology were accompanied by a cold-sensitive defect in the uptake of markers for bulk-phase and receptor-mediated endocytosis. Our findings demonstrate a requirement for Dnf1p and Dnf2p in lipid translocation across the yeast plasma membrane. Moreover, it appears that Dnf1p, Dnf2p and Drs2p each help regulate the transbilayer lipid arrangement in the plasma membrane, and that this regulation is critical for budding endocytic vesicles.

ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters↗