Golgi Flashcards
What determines the correct targeting of intra-Golgi vesicles?
Correct SNARE interactions (these are receptors of SNAP - Soluble NSF Attachment Protein)
Rabs and Rab effectors are also essential for targeting
What are Rabs?
It is a subfamily of GTP binding/hydrolysing proteins, within the Ras superfamily.
They are monomeric but require auxiliary proteins to function (specific GEFs and GAPs)
They are cytosolic and involved in vesicle trafficking but are never part of hte mechanical coats or fusion machinery.
What are Rabs?
It is a subfamily of GTP binding/hydrolysing proteins, within the Ras superfamily.
They are monomeric but require auxiliary proteins to function (specific GEFs and GAPs)
They are found in the cytosol.
How are Rab proteins similar to SNAREs?
Each active Rab protein has a characteristic distribution on the cytosolic surface of organelle membranes:
What do Rabs do?
They help in the correct targeting of vesicles in the secretory and endocytic pathways
How do Rabs work?
Each Rab needs a GEF and a set of effectors (on the target membrane), a GAP and a GDP dissociation inhibitor (GDI).
When Rab is active/GTP-bound, Rab-effectors can bind or respond to it
What do Rab-effectors do?
They may be vesicle tethering factors or motor proteins that propel vesicles along cytoskeletal filaments to their target membrane
What is vesicle tethering?
an initial “loose” interaction of vesicles via “long” cytosolic proteins that collect and restrain the correct vesicles close to the correct target membrane
What is vesicle tethering?
an initial “loose” interaction of vesicles via “long” cytosolic proteins that collect and restrain the correct vesicles close to the correct target membrane
Tethers hold vesicles ~25nm from the target
How does tethering lead to vesicular fusion?
Free t-SNAREs would need to be in the vicinity.
They would bring the membranes closer (5-10nm apart) to promote membrane fusion.
Rabs may ‘proofread’ the SNARE pairings to make sure they are correct
How are Rabs correctly localised to recruit/bind particular effectors?
It is probably the membrane localisation of the specific Rab-GEF (the protein that adds GTP to activate the Rab) that determines exactly where the Rab operates to recruit/bind its effectors
What are the two models of the Golgi apparatus?
Vesicular transport model (stable golgi - vesicles are used to transport material in both directions)
Cisternal maturation model (unstable golgi - cisternae are constantly formed de novo and move forward, with vesicles arising just to cycle components back to the ER
Who vouched for the vesicular transport model?
Jim Rothman, Yale
What is evidence in favour of the vesicular transport model?
- The stack appears to be polarised - differential localisation of glycosylation enzymes - seen via histochemical staining
- Vesicle traffic can be reconstituted in vitro
- COPI vesicles have been shown to separately carry KDEL receptors and proinsulin. The two markers were never seen in the same vesicles suggesting a different populations of retrograde and anterograde vesicles
- Vesicles at the rims of the Golgi contain mostly cargo molecules but NOT Golgi-resident enzymes
How would you argue against the evidence in favour of the vesicular transport model?
Extensive immunoEM shows that there is a considerable degree of overlap between the localisation of golgi enzymes
How does the fact that vesicle traffic can be reconstituted in vitro?
The transport assay results were interpreted to mean that cargo (VSV G protein) had been carried forward in vesicles
But, they could be explained by the retrograde movement of the missing glycosylation enzyme to meet the cargo in an earlier cisterna