Chapter 12 Flashcards
What are the main features that distinguishes eukaryotes from prokaryotes?
The presence of a nucleus and membrane bound compartments
Each organelle contains a distinct set of what that defines their cellular function?
Enzymes
What is tightly packed with organelles and contains very little free space?
The cytosol
What organelle contains many metabolic pathways and is the main site for protein synthesis?
Cytosol
Intracellular membrane bound organelles occupy how much of the cell?
Half the volume of a cell
What is this organelle?
- It is one of the most distinct organelles within the cell
- It typically occupies a central location within a cell
- It is used to distinguish prokaryotes from eukaryotes
The nucleus
What organelle houses the majority of the genomic material in the cell, is the site of DNA and RNA synthesis and uncouples transcription and RNA processing from translation?
The nucleus
Positioning of many intracellular organelles is dependent on their association with what?
Cytoskeletal elements (microtubules and actin filaments)
What organelle is responsible for sorting of endocytosed material?
Endosomes
What organelle synthesizes most of the lipids and synthesizes proteins for distribution to many organelles and the plasma membrane?
Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER)
What are continuous with the nuclear envelope and exist as an extensive network?
ER tubules
What are the four kinds of endoplasmic reticulum?
- Smooth ER2. Rough ER3. Sarcoplasmic Reticulum4. Transitional ER
Which ER is ribosome free and is responsible for lipid metabolism?
Smooth ER
Which ER has bound ribosomes and is responsible for protein synthesis?
Rough ER
Which ER is responsible for calcium handling and storage?
Sarcoplasmic reticulum
Which ER is smooth ER subtype, ER to golgi traffic?
Transitional ER
What are the main functions of the ER?
- Storage and production of glycogen2. Carbohydrate addition to proteins3. Protein folding, assembly and degradation4. Lipid and protein biosynthesis (for other organelles)
In polarized cells, what is always positioned between the nucleus and the direction of cell movement?
The Golgi
What appears as a series of flattened stacks appear as a nuclear-cap in mammalian cells?
The Golgi apparatus
What organelle is responsible for the modification, sorting and packaging of proteins and lipids for either secretion or delivery to another organelle?
Golgi Apparatus
What organelle is responsible for Oligosaccharide processing and assembly; Phosphorylation and sulfation modification of proteins?
Golgi apparatus
What organelle is responsible for Intracellular degradation, nutrient and waste storage (plant & fungi) and maintenance of cytosolic pH and turgur pressure (plant & fungi)?
Lysosome/vacuole
What organelle is responsible for the production of ATP (oxidative phosphorylation) and the catabolism of branched chain amino acids (Leu, Ile, Val)?
Mitochondria
What organelle is responsible for heme biosynthesis and the assembly of Fe and Fe-S complexes?
Mitochondria
What organelle is responsible for calcium storage, heat production (mitochondrial uncoupling), steroid biosynthesis (along with the ER) and apoptosis
Mitochondria
What organelle is responsible for oxidation of toxic molecules?
Peroxisomes
What organelle generates hydrogen peroxide which is used for the detoxification of phenols, formaldhyde and alcohol by peroxidation?
RH2 + O2 = R + H2O2
H2O2 + R’H2 = R’ + 2H2O
- Peroxisome
- glyoxysome
- glycosome
What organelle is involved with the beta-oxidation of fatty acids and the synthesis of cholesterol and polyunsaturated fatty acids?
Peroxisome
What organelle is involved in the photorespiration in plants (‘dark reaction’ of carbon fixation) and contains catalase (the hallmark enzyme for this organelle)
Peroxisome
What organelle converts fatty acids into sucrose (glyoxylate cycle)
Glyoxysomes (germinating seeds)
What organelle contains many of the enzymes involved in glycolysis?
Glycosomes (Trypanosoma)
Catalase converts hydrogen peroxide to what?
Water and oxygen
Catalase is responsible for the detoxification of toxins using what?
Hydrogen peroxide
What organelle uses ATP synthesis and carbon fixation by photosynthesis?
Chloroplasts (in plant cells)
What organelle is the site of photosynthesis (ATP production) and CO2 reduction by the Calvin cycle for use in amino acid, fatty acid, carbohydrate synthesis?
- Chloroplasts
- Plastid
What organelle is the site of nitrite and sulfate reduction (amino acid incorporation), storage of starch and oil compounds and has a role in environmental sensing (gravity, pathogen infection)?
- Chloroplasts
- Plastid
True or False: Each organelle carries out the same basic set of functions even among diverse cell types
TRUE
However, organelles can have additional what?
enzymatic properties (peroxisomes)
How do organelles vary between different types of organisms?
They can also vary in size, morphology and abundance depending on cellular demand, environmental stage of development or a cells condition
What cells are the bulk of the cells in the liver and are involved in protein, cholesterol, bile salt and phospholipid biosynthesis which have a high energy demand?
Hepatocytes
What cells are involved in the production of enzymes necessary for the digestion of proteins and fats; these cells are filled with secretory granules containing digestive enzymes?
Pancreatic exocrine cells
It believed that all eukaryotic cells developed from what?
An ancient procaryotic cell
An early invagination of the plasma membrane of a prokaryote formed, with time, what developed next?
The nuclear envelope and its associated ER membrane
The attachment of what to the plasma membrane and the location of all transmembrane events to the plasma membrane facilitated the formation of these organelles?
The bacterial genome
The acquisition of mitochondria and plastids occurred through what events?
Independent endosymbiotic
Early anaerobic eukaryotic cells acquired a what at a time when oxygen levels in the atmosphere increased substantially?
A purple photosynthetic bacterium
Nuclear transfer of bacterial genes occurred over millions of years to generate the what?
Mitochondrion
Today of the ~1,000 proteins in mitochondria, only how many of them are still encoded by the mitochondrial genome in humans?
13
The acquistion of plastids are thought to have occurred in a similar but independent endosymbiotic event. The engulfed organism was likely a what?
A cyanobacterium, a blue-green algae
Many of the bacterial genes escaped to the what over time?
The nucleus
A membrane invagination event likely occured for the development of what?
Chloroplasts
In immature plant cells the precursor to chloroplasts are what, an undeveloped double-membraned organelle that contains few internal structures?
Proplastids
As the immature plant cells differentiate, the proplastid develops based on what?
The needs of the cell
For chloroplasts, a portion of proplastid inner membrane invaginates to form what?
The thylakoid membrane and space
The thylakoid membrane and space are structurally and functionally distinct from the other membrane compartments; these membrane houses all of the what?
The photosynthetic machinery.
Proplastid development is what type dependent? It is under what control?
Tissue type dependent and nuclear control
What are found in green tissues and are responsible for photosynthesis?
Chloroplasts
What are colorless and are found in seeds and root tissue and are specialized for the storage of starch?
Amyloplasts
What are involved in pigment synthesis and are found in all colored organs such as fruits and flowers?
Chromoplasts
All nuclear encoded proteins begin translation on what?
Cytosolic ribosomes
The next step depends on a what?
Targeting signal
What direct the protein to utilize one of the three protein trafficking pathways present in eukaryotic cells?
Targeting signals
What are the three protein trafficking pathways present in eukaryotic cells?
- Gated transport2. Transmembrane transport3. Vesicular transport
What transport is this? 1. The trafficking of proteins between the cytosol and the nucleus. 2. This is an active transport process. 3. Proteins contain a nuclear import (or export) signal. 4. They are recognized by specific receptor proteins for transport through nuclear pores
Gated transport
What transport is this? 1. It requires the presence of specific membrane translocators. 2. Pathway used for the transport of proteins from the cytosol into the mitochondria, the ER, plastids, or peroxisomes 3. Polypeptides can only pass through these membrane translocators in an unfolded form (mitochondria, chloroplasts, ER) 4. Peroxisomal proteins are unusual in that folded proteins are capable of transport into this organelle
Transmembrane transport
What transport involves cycles of membrane budding and fusion between the ER and the Golgi, the Golgi and the lysosome and the Golgi and the plasma membrane?
Vesicular
The uptake of extracellular material by endocytosis is also by what?
Vesicular trafficking
Vesicular transport mechanism is responsible for moving material from what?
One membrane bound compartment
Vesicular trafficking Maintains all enclosed proteins in the same what?
Same topology (a soluble protein in the ER is a soluble protein in the Golgi)
With vesicular trafficking, the orientation of a multispanning membrane protein in the ER is maintained as the protein passes through what?
Membrane bound compartments
Protein targeting to an organelle requires what? (3 answers)
- a signal on the protein that specifies its destination, 2. a receptor that recognizes this signal, 3. a transmembrane protein complex responsible for the transport of the protein across the membrane
It is not the specific amino acid sequence of these targeting signals that specify targeting, rather their what?
Physical properties
What are their physical properties are used that specify targeting?
Hydrophobicity or structural motif
What is surrounded by a nuclear envelope which contains pores that allow the passage of materials into and out of the nucleus?
The nucleus
The nucleus is surrounded by a nuclear envelope which contains pores that allow for what kind of traffic?
Bidirectional traffic
What houses the majority of the genomic material and is the site of DNA replication and RNA synthesis?
The nucleus
What is A?
Nuclear envelope
The outer nuclear membrane is continuous with the surrounding membrane of the what?
Endoplasmic reticulum (ER)
The space between the inner and outer nuclear membrane is continuous with what?
The lumen of the ER.
In a typical mammalian cell, the nuclear envelope can contain as many as 3,000 - 4,000 what?
Nuclear pores
Each nuclear pore contains ~30 different proteins (called what?) that assemble into a large complex of about 125 million daltons in mass.
Nucleoporins
The shape and stability of the nucleus is provided by a subset of proteins called the what?
Nuclear lamins.
Nuclear lamins polymerize into a 2D network that sits just beneath the what?
Inner nuclear membrane
Nuclear lamins attach to proteins found in the nuclear pore and the inner membrane and interact with chromatin, thereby providing a physical link what two things?
Between DNA and the nuclear envelope.
What is A?
Nuclear lamins
Nuclear Pore Complexes (NPCs) show what kind of symmetry?
An 8 fold rotational symmetry
Nuclear pore complexes sit between what two membranes without disrupting their continuity
The inner and outer nuclear membranes
What is this structure?
Nuclear pore complex
Identify the parts of the nuclear pore complex
A: Cytosolic fibril
B: Lumenal subunit
C: Ring subunit
D: Nuclear fibril
E: Nuclear basket
F: Nuclear lamina
Identify the 4 ‘substructures’ of the nuclear pore complex and what part of the structure they build:
- Column subunits (form the side walls of the pore), 2. Annular subunits (line the inner portion of the pore), 3. Lumenal subunits (anchor the complex to the membrane), 4. Ring subunits (flank both the cytosolic and nuclear faces of the complex)
Fibril like structures are found where?
On both faces of the pore
How many cytosolic fibrils are present?
8
There are 8 nuclear fibrils that form a what?
A basket-like structure
What are the two types of nuclear transport?
- Passive transport or diffusion 2. Facilitated, Active or Gated Transport:
What kind of transport freely moves molecules less than 5kD and slowly and inefficiently transports of proteins in the 20-40kD size range. So, as the size increases, transport through the pores, slows down ?
Passive Transport
What kind of transport has no difference in metabolite distribution between the cytosol and the nucleus?
Passive Transport
What kind of transport does not require receptors and energy?
Passive Transport
Which kind of transport is the nuclear envelope is not a barrier?
Passive Transport
What type of transport is an energy requiring process?
Facilitated transport or Gated Transport
What kind of energy is required for protein import and export using gated transport?
GTP
What kind of energy is required for mRNA export using gated transport?
ATP
What kind of transport moves molecules against their concentration gradient?
Facilitated or Gated Transport
What kind of transport is used by proteins larger than 60kD?
Facilitated or Gated Transport
What are the four properties of facilitated nuclear transport?
- Requires energy (GTP) 2. Temperature dependent 3. Signal sequence dependent 4. Saturable
The rate of facilitated transport is what dependent?
Temperature
Facilitated transport is selective; only proteins with a what can be transported?
Signal sequence
Facilitate transport is a what event? Only a fixed amount of substrate can be transported in a given period of time
A saturable event
In general ‘facilitated’ nuclear transport can be broken down into what 3 key steps?
- Formation of a cargo:carrier complex in the donor compartment 2. Transport of this complex through the nuclear pore 3. Release of the cargo in the target compartment and recycling of the carrier
What classes of DNA proteins are imported into the nucleus?
- Histones/DNA packaging proteins 2. DNA polymerase (for DNA replication) 3. DNA repair enzymes4. DNA modifying enzymes (e.g. methlyase, topoisomerase I and II, helicase, ligase)
What classes of RNA proteins are imported into the nucleus?
- Transcription factors (for RNA synthesis) 2. RNA processing/transport proteins (e.g. spliceosome, exosome, export factors)3. Ribosomal subunits (for assembly with RNA)
Ribosomal subunits (used in the cytosol for protein translation) require what?
An RNA component
Give the steps of the transport process for the assembly of ribosomal subunits?
- Ribosomal proteins synthesized in the cytosol are imported into the nucleus, 2. They are assembed with ribosomal RNA,3. They are exported back into the cytosol for final assembly
What are the general classes of proteins exported from the nucleus? (5 answers)
- Assembled ribosomal subunits 2. Transcription factors (cell cycle mediated export) E2F4 3. RNA binding/processing proteins (environmental conditions) Pdcd4 4. tRNAs5. Viral proteins and RNAs
What are the general properties of proteins undergoing nucleocytoplasmic shuttling?
- They are folded (have acquired tertiary structure) 2. They can be associated with other proteins (quaternary structure). Therefore can be large in size; up to 10MDa or 25nm in diameter 3. They contain an amino acid sequence that is recognized by import or export receptors; NLS or NES, respectively, (or they can be associated with a protein that contains anNLS or NES)4. The import/export signal is not removed after transport
What is the primary structure?
Amino acid sequence
What is the secondary structure?
The beta sheet, alpha helical coiled-coil formation
What is the tertiary structure?
The final folded form of a single polypeptide
What is the quaternary structure?
Assembly with other folded subunits
The transport of folded protein occurs for what kinds of transport? (4 answers)
- Peroxisomal transport, 2. Vesicular transport, 3. Plasmadesmata mediated transport,4. Nuclear transport
Nuclear Localization Signal (NLS) is on the surface of what?
A folded protein
Protein import may be through its association with
Another protein that has an NLS
What are the key players in nuclear transport?
- The cargo or protein to be transported 2. The transport receptor or carrier 3. The transport co-receptor or adaptor4. The Ran GTPase system:
What kind of signal will the cargo or protein to be exported contain?
Nuclear Export Signal (NES)
What kind of signal will the cargo or protein to be imported contain?
Nuclear Localization Signal (NLS)
What recognizes the substrate to be transported and are themselves recognized by the transport machinery?
Transport receptor or carrier
What is the transport receptor or carrier for import?
Importin _ (or karyopherin _)
What is the transport receptor or carrier for export?
CRM1 (or exportin 1)
Nuclear import receptors do not always directly bind to nuclear localization signals. What kind of proteins may be used to link the cargo with a receptor?
Adaptor proteins
What is the transport co-receptor or adaptor for import?
Importin _ (binds to the NLS)
What does CRM1 mean?
Chromosome Region Maintenance
The variety of receptors and adaptors enables the recognition of a larger repertoire of what?
Nuclear transport signals
What is Ran?
A monomeric GTPase that acts as a molecuar switch and is regulated by the state of its bound nucleotide
Give the components of the Ran GTPase system:
Ran, a Ran GEF protein, and a Ran GAP protein
Which Ran (Ran GEF or Ran GAP) is this? It promotes the exchange of bound GDP for GTP
Ran GEF
Which Ran (Ran GEF or Ran GAP) is this? It triggers GTP hydrolysis to convert Ran-GTP into Ran-GDP
Ran GAP
Ran-GAP and Ran-GEF are differentially localized in the cell therefore the state of Ran will depend on what?
Its location in the cell
Protein transport into and out of the nucleus requires what?
A transport signal
What are the two transport signals?
- Nuclear Localization Signal (NLS) 2. Nuclear Export Signal (NES)
Which signal (NLS or NES) is comprised of Arg and Lys (basic, postively charged amino acids)?
Nuclear Localization Signal (NLS)
Which signal (NLS or NES) is often bipartite in nature: 2 separate clusters of Arg and Lys residues separated by a ~10 amino acid spacer?
Nuclear Localization Signal (NLS)
Which signal (NLS or NES) is not removed from the protein after nuclear import and is typically part of the protein’s functional domain?
Nuclear Localization Signal (NLS)
Which signal (NLS or NES) is comprised of 5-6 hydrophobic amino acids (Leu and Ile)?
Nuclear Export Signal (NES)
What is the first step in nuclear protein import?
Cytosolic proteins with a NLS are recognized by the co-adaptor, Imp-alpha. The Imp-alpha receptor then binds the substrate-Imp-alpha complex and transports it through the NPC into the
What is the second step in nuclear protein import?
The Impβ receptor then binds the substrate-Impα complex and transports it through the NPC into the
nucleus.
What is the third step of nuclear protein import?
Once in the nucleus, Ran-GTP binds to Impβ causing the trimeric complex to fall apart.
What is the fourth step of nuclear protein import?
Impβ bound to Ran-GTP returns to the cytosol through the NPC (Impβ recycling!).
What is the fifth step of nuclear protein import?
Once in the cytosol, the GTP form of Ran is converted to GDP by a Ran-GAP (guanine activating protein) and Impβ is released to undergo another round of nuclear import.
Nuclear import, cycle using a cargo protein that requires an adaptor for receptor recognition, and what other reason?
Protein movement from the cytosol into the nucleus
What is the first step in nuclear export?
Nuclear proteins with a NES are recognized by CRM1 (an exportin) and Ran-GTP in the nucleus.
Exportins only bind Ran-GTP in the presence of what?
Cargo
What is the second step in nuclear export?
This trimeric protein complex (cargo, CRM1, Ran-GTP) is then transported through the NPC and into the cytosol.
What is the third step in nuclear export?
Once in the cytosol, Ran-GTP releases the cargo protein and the exportin receptor. This release step is mediated by a cytosolic Ran GAP protein that stimulates GTP hydrolysis to generate Ran-GDP.
CRM1 has no affinity for what?
Ran-GDP
What is the fourth step in nuclear export?
Ran-GDP and CRM1 are then reimported into the nucleus for another round of nuclear export.
Localization of Ran GTP sets up the what?
Direction of transport
Ran GTP is high in the nucleus and low in the what?
Cytosol
Ran GTP is high in the nucleus and low in the cytosol is established because Ran-GEF localizes to what and Ran-GAP localizes to the what?
Ran-GEF: nucleus Ran-GAP: cytosol
What two functions is Ran-GTP responsible for?
Binding to incoming receptors with their attached cargo and promoting cargo release in the nucleus
What does Ran-GTP do after it binds incoming receptors with their attached cargo and promotes cargo release in the nucleus?
It escorts the receptor back to the cytosol for an additional round of transport
Nuclear Ran-GTP is also responsible for what other function?
Recognizing NES containing cargo bound to its receptor for nuclear export
Ran in its GDP bound form has no affinity for import or export receptors; unloading occurs only where?
In the cytosol
For the Ran cycle to continue Ran gets reimported back where?
Into the nucleus
The nuclear import of Ran-GDP is mediated what separate transport receptor?
NTF2 (nuclear transport factor 2)
The driving force behind nuclear transport is provided, in part, by what?
The differential subcellular localization of Ran-GTP and Ran-GDP.
What is required in the nucleus for protein export (Including the export of the import receptor, Impβ!).?
Ran-GTP
Ran-GTP is converted to Ran-GDP in the cytosol by
what to promote the release of bound cargo?
Ran-GAP
Ran-GDP is then returned to the nucleus by what, the Ran-GDP specific import receptor?
NTF2
Once in the nucleus, Ran-GDP is converted to Ran-GTP
by what?
The nuclear localized Ran-GEF.
What organelle has a high concentration of Ran-GTP?
Nucleus
What organelle has a low concentration of Ran-GTP?
Cytosol
Facilitated protein export requires what?
Ran-GTP
GTP hydrolysis is required for the release of the cargo after what?
Nuclear export
Protein import also indirectly requires Ran- GTP activity as Ran-GTP is necessary for release of what?
Imported substrate and the export of Imp_.
What is the cellular cost for the transport of one protein?
A single GTP hydrolysis event
In many eukaryotic organisms, the nuclear envelope breaks down during what?
Mitosis
The disassembly of the nuclear envelope during mitosis is triggered by what?
The phosphorylation of both nuclear lamins and inner membrane proteins.
What is the chain of events during the disassembly of the nuclear envelope during mitosis?
- The dispersal of nuclear pore proteins into the cytosol. 2. The movement of membrane proteins into the ER membrane. 3. The removal of the nuclear envelope from the chromatin (by dynein).
Release of nuclear components during mitosis requires that nuclear proteins be what once nuclear envelope formation begins?
Re-imported
The nucleus re-formation is facilitated by the attachment of Ran GEF to what; a high local concentration of Ran-GTP near DNA?
Chromatin
What signals are not removed after transport so that these proteins can be re-imported into the nucleus after every cell division?
Nuclear localization
During protein importation into the nucleus, what amino acids does the NLS have?
Lysine and Arginine
During protein exportation out of the nucleus, what amino acids does the NES have?
Leucine
What carrier/receptor is used for nuclear import?
Importin-_, +/- adaptor
What carrier/receptor is used for nuclear export?
CRM1, +/- adaptor
Where is the donor compartment in nuclear import?
Cytosol
Where is the donor compartment in nuclear export?
Nucleus
Where is the target compartment in nuclear import?
Nucleus
Where is the target compartment in nuclear export?
Cytosol
What are the mechanisms regulating nuclear transport? (5 answers)
- Changes in protein conformation 2. +/- Post-translational modification 3. Blockage of NLS recognition 4. Cytoskeletal tethering to prevent transport 5. Protein cleavage/degradation
Nuclear localization of proteins can be what?
Regulated
Nuclear transport mechanisms give a cell additional levels of regulatory control permitting what?
A quick cellular response
Which is faster?: 1. Transporting an already made protein from the cytosol into the nucleus in response to an external signal 2. A mRNA that has to undergo transcription, followed by translation and then transport
- Transporting an already made protein from the cytosol into the nucleus in response to an external signal
Experimentally, how do you determine whether an amino acid sequence is a nuclear localization signal?
Mutational analysis
How do you perform mutational analysis?
Change a basic amino acid (Arg or Lys) within the putative NLS to an uncharged amino acid such as Thr and monitor the resulting intracellular localization.
Mutational analysis uses experimental identification of the amino acids that act as what?
A nuclear targeting signal
The same strategies used in mutational analysis can be used to study what? (2 answers)
Nuclear export and nuclear import signals