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A new class of lysosomal/vacuolar protein sorting signals.

A number of inherited lysosomal diseases are known to result from missorting of lysosomal proteins. Considerable attention has been directed toward an understanding of this sorting pathway, and it has become apparent that different mechanisms are used for the sorting of lysosomal membrane and soluble proteins. Protein sorting to the yeast vacuole/lysosome provides a simple model system to study this process. We have mapped the first sorting signal in a vacuolar membrane protein, repressible alkaline phosphatase, and have shown it to be both necessary and sufficient for vacuolar delivery of this enzyme. The sorting information is confined to the transmembrane and cytoplasmic tail region of this type II integral membrane protein. The location of this sorting signal provides an explanation for some of the differences observed between membrane and soluble vacuolar protein sorting.

Alkaline Phosphatase

Plant and mammalian sorting signals for protein retention in the endoplasmic reticulum contain a conserved epitope.

We studied protein sorting signals which are responsible for the retention of reticuloplasmins in the lumen of the plant endoplasmic reticulum (ER). A non-specific passenger protein, previously shown to be secreted by default, was used as a carrier for such signals. Tagging with C-terminal tetrapeptide sequences of mammalian (KDEL) and yeast (HDEL) reticuloplasmins led to effective accumulation of the protein chimeras in the lumen of the plant ER. Some single amino acid substitutions within the tetrapeptide tag (-SDEL, -KDDL, -KDEI and -KDEV) can cause a complete loss of its function as a retention signal, demonstrating the high specificity of the retention machinery. However, other modifications confer efficient (-RDEL) or partial (-KEEL) retention. It is also shown that the efficiency of protein retention is not significantly impaired by an increased ligand concentration in plants. The efficiently retained chimeras (-KDEL, -HDEL and -RDEL) were shown to be recognized by a monoclonal antibody directed against the C-terminus of the mammalian reticuloplasmin protein disulfide isomerase (PDI). The recognized epitope is also present in several putative reticuloplasmins in microsomal fractions of plant and mammalian cells, suggesting that the antibodies recognize an important structural determinant of the retention signal. In addition, data are discussed which support the view that upstream sequences beyond the C-terminal tetrapeptide can influence or may be part of the structure of reticuloplasmin retention signals.

Amino Acid Sequence

Glycoprotein synthesis and secretion: translation and targeting.

To establish and maintain organelle identity, the eucaryotic cell must be able to target newly synthesized proteins to the various cellular compartments. The specificity of this process appears to be generally mediated by the interaction of structural features of the transported proteins (sorting signals) with cellular proteins that bind these structures and mediate the targeted transport (sorting receptors). Although signals involved in the sorting into a variety of intracellular organelles as well as some (putative) receptor proteins have been identified, the sorting signals and receptors involved in the targeted transport of proteins to the cells surface are just beginning to evolve.

Glycoproteins

Glycophospholipid membrane anchoring provides clues to the mechanism of protein sorting in polarized epithelial cells.

The sorting signals that guide proteins to apical and basolateral surfaces of epithelial cells have remained elusive. Current evidence suggests a hierarchy of sorting information with multiple sorting signals (apical and basolateral) present in different domains of a given plasma membrane protein. The observation that covalently attached glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol (GPI) acts as a 'dominant' apical targeting signal is compatible with the involvement of glycolipids in epithelial protein sorting.

Animals

Protein transport across the ER membrane.

Protein transport across the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane may be divided into two phases: an initiation or targeting cycle, which has been fairly well characterized, and the actual transfer of the polypeptide chain through the membrane, the mechanism of which is still unknown. In this review, the initiation cycle is discussed with emphasis on the mechanism of signal sequence recognition by the 54 kDa polypeptide of the signal recognition particle (SRP) and on the efficiency of targeting of nascent chains. Recent results are reviewed suggesting the transfer of the polypeptide chain by means of a translocation complex, a constituent of which appears to be the signal sequence receptor protein (SSR).

Animals

A signal-anchor sequence selective for the mitochondrial outer membrane.

pOMD29 is a hybrid protein containing the NH2-terminal topogenic sequence of a bitopic, integral protein of the outer mitochondrial membrane in yeast, OMM70, fused to dihydrofolate reductase. The topogenic sequence consists of two structural domains: an NH2-terminal basic region (amino acids 1-10) and an apolar region which is the predicted transmembrane segment (amino acids 11-29). The transmembrane segment alone was capable of targeting and inserting the hybrid protein into the outer membrane of intact mitochondria from rat heart in vitro. The presence of amino acids 1-10 enhanced the rate of import, and this increased rate depended, in part, on the basic amino acids located at positions 2, 7, and 9. Deletion of a large portion of the transmembrane segment (amino acids 16-29) resulted in a protein that exhibited negligible import in vitro. Insertion of pOMD29 into the outer membrane was not competed by import of excess precursor protein destined for the mitochondrial matrix, indicating that the two proteins may have different rate-limiting steps during import. We propose that the structural domains within amino acids 1-29 of pOMD29 cooperate to form a signal-anchor sequence, the characteristics of which suggest a model for proper sorting to the mitochondrial outer membrane.

Amino Acid Sequence

Improving signal peptide prediction accuracy by simulated neural network.

The accuracy of distinguishing amino-terminal signal peptides from cytosolic proteins has been improved to 95% by combining a neural network classifier with von Heijne's statistical prediction, the latter is itself 85-90% reliable. The network processed not the cleavage site, but amino-terminal 20-residue segments by the 'tiling' algorithm. Concordant positive predictions of both methods led to the safe identification of 496 novel signal peptides from the Protein Identification Resources.

Amino Acid Sequence

The signal peptide.

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Amino Acid Sequence

Signalling across the endoplasmic reticulum membrane: potential mechanisms.

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a membrane-bound organelle responsible for the synthesis, assembly and post-translational modification of proteins destined for the lysosomes, Golgi and for secretion. The processes which occur in the lumen of the ER are vital to the correct functioning of the cell, and mechanisms must exist to enable the cell to monitor events within the lumen of the ER. How the cell is able to do this is not known, but it would apparently require the passage of signals from the lumen of the ER to the cytosol, from where signals can be sent to, for example, the nucleus to effect changes in transcription. Here, it is suggested that the membrane of the ER may contain the components (i.e. receptors, kinases, etc.) required for transmembrane signalling in much the same way as the plasma membrane does. This hypothesis will be discussed in relation to known ER proteins which might act as signalling proteins.

Amino Acid Sequence

Abnormal protein translocation as the elusive cause of cystic fibrosis: an hypothesis.

Despite the recent rapid advances in isolation of the abnormal gene responsible for cystic fibrosis, there remains the need to explain the mechanism by which a single gene mutation causes the widespread clinical effects seen in this disease. Careful review of the otherwise unexplained abnormalities of cystic fibrosis from the perspective of cell biology reveals the following common features: (1) all these abnormalities involve proteins which are either (A) inserted into cell membranes in the RER and arrested after partial translocation or (B) inserted into RER membranes and fully translocated to be compartmentalized away from the cytosol in secretory vacuoles, lysosomes or peroxisomes; (2) all the involved proteins have minor abnormalities in their physicochemical properties or activity functions; (3) none of the involved proteins are missing or totally deficient in function; (4) final compartmentalization of the involved proteins is unaffected. These observations have directed our attention to the process by which most proteins are inserted into and translocated across lipid bilayer membranes, namely the signal peptide mechanism. This mechanism, not previously examined in cystic fibrosis, is reviewed in detail. Of the major proteins controlling signal peptide translocation, deficiencies in the function of signal peptidase activity appear most capable of causing the effects seen in cystic fibrosis.

Animals

Sequence, structure, and expression of a wasp venom protein with a negatively charged signal peptide and a novel repeating internal structure.

An expression cDNA library prepared from mRNA from the venom gland of a parasitic wasp, Chelonus sp. near curvimaculatus, was screened with polyclonal antibodies against a 33-kDa venom protein from this wasp. Immunoreactive clones were sequenced, yielding a complete inferred sequence for a protein with an NH2 terminus identical with that of the 33-kDa protein. The structure of the cDNA showed an apparent encoded signal peptide, which was unusual in possessing 2 glutamic acid residues juxtapositioned next to, or replacing, the conventional basic residues. The bulk of the mature protein sequence which follows the NH2-terminal, 5000-kDa hydrophobic domain is composed of a dozen tandem repeats of a highly charged, approximately 14-residue sequence, except for the truncated eighth repeat which terminates in the only proline in this large domain. The primary structure is not closely related to any sequence in the GenBank data bank. Secondary structure analysis identified a turn occurring at or near each of 12 invariantly conserved serine residues. Further, the codon used for this serine was invariant, whereas other serines in the protein (including a nearly invariant serine 2 residues away) used various codons. Results of epitope mapping experiments supported a proposed tertiary structure in which the NH2-terminal 5-kDa forms a hydrophobic core, overlain with the charged repeats. Northern analysis of poly(A) RNA from the venom gland of young adult female wasps showed expression of a single 1-kilobase transcript, for which there is no corresponding message in normal or parasitized host larvae. The remarkable structure of this protein and structural data on other wasp venom proteins suggest an evolutionary pattern in which some proteins critical for venom function evolve by internal tandem duplication, and which are secreted after biosynthesis by a different mechanism from that used for proteins with classical signal peptides containing basic residues.

Amino Acid Sequence

Characterization of the gene for the bovine seminal vesicle secretory protein SVSP109.

As part of an attempt to understand androgen-regulation of SVSP109, a bovine seminal vesicle secretory protein of 109 amino acids, we have characterized the bovine SVSP109 gene. The 6.1 kb gene is organized in five exons and four introns. Regulatory sequences involved in regulation of transcription could not be identified by simple sequence homologies. The SVSP109 gene may provide an excellent example for functional properties of exons: exon 1 encodes the entire signal peptide and exon 4 the complete fibronectin type II-domain, responsible for protein-protein interactions.

Amino Acid Sequence

Transport of microinjected proteins into peroxisomes of mammalian cells: inability of Zellweger cell lines to import proteins with the SKL tripeptide peroxisomal targeting signal.

Previous work has shown that the firefly (Photinus pyralis) luciferase contains a C-terminal peroxisomal targeting signal consisting of the tripeptide Ser-Lys-Leu. This report describes the microinjection of two proteins, (i) luciferase and (ii) albumin conjugated to a peptide ending in the sequence Ser-Lys-Leu, into mammalian cells grown in tissue culture. Following microinjection, incubation of the cells at 37 degrees C resulted in peroxisomal transport of these exogenous proteins into catalase-containing vesicles. The translocation was both time and temperature dependent. The transport could be inhibited by coinjection of synthetic peptides bearing various peroxisomal targeting signal motifs. These proteins could be transported into peroxisomes in normal human fibroblast cell lines but not in cell lines derived from patients with Zellweger syndrome. These results demonstrate that microinjection of peroxisomal proteins yields an authentic in vivo system with which to study peroxisomal transport. Furthermore, these results reveal that the process of peroxisomal transport does not involve irreversible modification of the protein, that artificial hybrid substrates can be transported and used as tools to study peroxisomal transport, and that the defect in Zellweger syndrome is indeed the inability to transport proteins containing the Ser-Lys-Leu targeting signal into the peroxisomal lumen.

3T3 Cells

Antibodies directed against the peroxisomal targeting signal of firefly luciferase recognize multiple mammalian peroxisomal proteins.

We have previously shown that the peroxisomal targeting signal in firefly luciferase consists of the COOH-terminal three amino acids of the protein, serine-lysine-leucine (Gould, S.J., G.A. Keller, N. Hosken, J. Wilkinson, and S. Subramani, 1989. J. Cell Biol. 108:1657-1664). Antibodies were raised against a synthetic peptide that contained this tripeptide at its COOH terminus. Immunofluorescence and immunocryoelectron microscopy revealed that the anti-peptide antibodies specifically detected peroxisomes in mammalian cells. Further characterization revealed that the antibodies were primarily directed against the COOH-terminal three amino acids of the peptide. In Western blot experiments, the antibodies recognized 15-20 rat liver peroxisomal proteins, but reacted with only a few proteins from other subcellular compartments. These results provide independent immunological evidence that the peroxisomal targeting signal identified in firefly luciferase is present in many peroxisomal proteins.

Amino Acid Sequence