Membrane Trafficking Flashcards
What are 4 families of Small GTPases and what mechanism are they used for?
- Rab
>Endosomal trafficking - Ras
>Cell proliferation (an Oncogene) and migration (lamellipodia formation) - Rho
>Cytoskeleton/ Migration (Actin stress fibre contraction) - Arf
>Membrane budding
What is the largest family of Small GTPases?
Ras superfamily
What is an overview to how Small GTPases a) activate b) signal?
a) Activation based off of conformational change
b) Bind and activate downstream effectors (usually a kinase which goes on to phosphorylate)
What is the structure of GTP?
> Guanine nucleotide bound to ribose to form Guanosine nucleo side
> 3 phosphate groups, alpha, beta, gamma phosphates (tri phosphate groups)
Describe why hydrolysis of GTP causes conformational change of a protein.
Hydrolysis of a phosphate bond at gamma phosphate, releases energy but also causes change in a molecule making it less charged (more negative) causing a conformational change to bound protein
Why is a protein in a GDP bound state unstable?
Due to energy source due to cleavage, makes activated GTPase unstable, as is energetically favourable for molecule to want to move back to GTP form.
Why are Small GTPases referred to as cycling molecules?
GTPase needs to be able to cycle bound nucleotide
What is the difference between Signalling active and Hydrolysis active?
> Difference between signalling active and hydrolysis active as signalling active is bound to GTP and hydrolysis active is bound to GDP (as has removed phosphates and switching off signalling activity).
> Say GTP bound Rac1 instead of signalling active Rac1 for example, make sure to specify what type of active the GTPase is.
Describe the 5 main structures of a Small GTPase and their functions.
- Conserved body between most GTPases
- Phosphate coordinated by P-loop
>Phosphate binding loop, phosphate of bound nucleotide are coordinated by P-loop (crucial for nucleotide binding/ controlling shape of GTPase) - Mg2+ essential for nucleotide binding
>Magnesium allows highly negatively charged phosphate groups to bind strongly. - Switch regions
>Switch 1 at bottom, Switch 2 at top; When GTP is bound is that these switch regions tuck in a bit, changing shape so can bind to effector. - Threonine stabilises water facilitating hydrolysis of beta-gamma phosphate bond.
What is the effect of GTP bound to a GTPase?
When GTP is bound is that these switch regions tuck in a bit, changing shape so it can bind to effector.
Why can we not detect an active GTPase via a) phosphorylation b) antibodies
a) No phosphorylation event as is not a kinase, it is phosphorylated but does not phosphorylate.
b) Antibody not used due to subtilty in conformational change, as antibodies we design would bind to both the unactive and active form due to minor change.
How can we use effectors to distinguish between active and unactive GTPases?
Effectors can only bind when GTP is bound to GTPase while effectors cannot bind when GDP is bound to GTPase.
How is GTP bound to a GTPase hydrolysed in 3 steps?
- Catalytic glutamine residue binds to GTP
- Positioning of attacking water
>Threonine positions water which hydrolyses bond between beta and gamma phosphate - Counteracting of negative charge at phosphates
>P-loop contributes positive charge through lysine residue to neutralize the negative charge a bit and lower the energy barrier
What are 2 mutants used to examine GTPase in GTP bound state?
- Q61L (Glutamate61) catalytic glutamine mutant
>Used to make GTPase always in GTP bound form, we would substitute the glutamine for a mutant so cannot do catalytic activity - G12V pushes Q61 out of position and disturbs P loop (P-loop mutation)
>Glycine12 in P-loop can be substituted for a mutant to push Glutamate61 out of position so catalysis cannot occur so stuck in GTP form.
Describe the cyclic regulation of GTPases by 1) GEF 2) GAP?
- GTPase + GDP (inactive signalling)
>GEF (guanine nucleotide exchange factors) stabilise transition state so we can exchange bound nucleotide, accelerates exchange rate of GDP to GTP (switches on signalling of GTPase). - GTPase + GTP (actively signalling)
>GAP (GTPase activating proteins) speeds up hydrolysis of bound GTP to form GDP and stop signalling.
What do GEF and GAP stand for?
GEF (guanine nucleotide exchange factors)
GAP (GTPase activating proteins)
Why are GEF proteins needed to remove GDP from Small GTPases?
Small GTPases are unstable so would not remove GDP on their own.
Why do GTPases require GAPs to hydrolyse GTP?
As small GTPase hydrolysis is slow.
What is the function of GDI (Guanine Nucleotide dissociation inhibitor)?
Bind to GTPase in GDP bound state and keeps it switched off.
In the Rac1 GTPase, what is the role of the Thr35 residue?
> Thr35 (Threonine) stabilises water and bound magnesium.
> Restricted freedom -> reduced entropy barrier/ less energy required to change state
(Water has less freedom to move about, which accelerates hydrolysis).
How do GAPs contribute to stabilisation during GTP hydrolysis at a GTPase in 2 ways?
- GAP Arg85 stabilises position of catalytic glutamine (GIn61) stabilising GTPase more.
- Arg85 is positively charged amino acid which counteracts negative charge phosphate, causes destabilisation of phosphate bond, increasing rate of hydrolysis.
How do GEFs accelerate exchange of GDP for GTP at GTPases?
By Stabilising nucleotide-free, Mg2+-free GTPase form, so GDP can fall off so more GTP can come in.
Describe the T17N dominant negative mutant of Rac and the effect on GEFs
> Mutant that disrupts ability of nucleotide to bind at all, pushes to nucleotide free GTPase (which is inactive)
> This Rac will also effect all GEFs so all GTPases in cell will be switched off (GEFs bind in attempt to swap GDP to GTP but as can’t bind nucleotide the GEF never dissociates)
What are 3 types of GEFs?
- Dbl-homology domain
- DOCK-family
- Sec7 domain
What is an example of a GEF which binds to many different GTPases?
Vav 1,2,3 are not specific to a GTPase, but assist to GDP exchange in many different GTPases
What is the effect of having so many GEFs?
Gives a lot of capacity for regulation
Give an example of a GEF which is specific to a GTPase and what would a mutation in this GTPase cause?
> Tiam1: GEF that regulates Rac
> Mutant in Rac can no longer bind to Tiam1 but will bind to another GEF; shows the subtilty between different GTPase structure.
Describe the role of 1)Cdc42 b)Rac1 c)RhoA in actin-based motility of a cell
- Allows cell to adhered to matrix coated surface, stimulation with a growth factor for example, which induce migration towards this by Filopodia
>Through activation of Cdc42 (Rho family GTPase) - Formation of lamellipodia protruding forward and forming adhesions.
>Regulated by Rac1 (Rho family GTPase). - Formation of actin stress fibres, contraction and dissembley of adhesions at the rear to pull forward body of the cell
>RhoA (Rho family GTPase) responsibility for contractility
Describe the pathway of GTPases in activation of actomyosin contraction
GTP-RhoA -> Rho Kinase (effector molecule) -> Myosin light chain phosphorylation -> Actomyosin contraction
Why are Cdc42/Rac signals and RhoA signals antagonised against each other
1.Cdc42/Rac are protrusive signals
>Pushes front of cell forwards
- RhoA is a contractile signal
>Pulls back of cell forward
As they have opposite functions, the signals must be active at opposite times.
When RhoA is GTP bound state, what is happening to the cell and what state are Cdc42/Rac in?
> Actin stress fibres active, so back of the cell pulled towards the front.
> Cdc42 and Rac are in GDP bound states, so will not signal for protrusions.
What is the difference in movements of cells in a a) 2D environment (on a plate) b) 3D matrix (like in our body)
a) Cells move randomly in a 2D setting, but are fast
b) Cells move in a specific direction, but more slowly (do translocate more efficiently despite a low speed as have direction).
Describe how the position of Rac1 in a cell is important for cell motility.
> When Rac1 is found only at the front of the cell, when active, protrusions will only be from the front. So the cell moves in a linear fashion across matrix fibres (has direction).
> When Rac1 is found all over the cell, when active, protrusions will be from all directions. So the cell will move without direction so will not translocate across the matrix fibres (has no direction).
Why would a mouse with fibroblasts where Rac1 is found all over the cell have a healing defect?
As a cell with Rac1 all over lacks direction in movement, fibroblasts will not be able to migrate to wounds quickly (slow translocation), so the mice’s skin will not heal quickly.
What are sequential modifications?
Modifications that are made in a particular order or sequence, where each modification is dependent on the previous one.
Why is membrane trafficking needed for sequential modifications of proteins?
Membrane trafficking allows for compartmentalisation: As specific enzymes can be contained in separate compartments so proteins can undergo different sequential modifications in different cellular compartments.
What is membrane trafficking?
Membrane trafficking is a process by which membranes and the proteins and molecules they contain are transported within and between cells.
What are the 2 major pathways of membrane trafficking and their function?
- Secretory/Exocytic (biosynthetic) pathway
>Peptides enter ER lumen then trafficked to Golgi to Plasma Membrane/endosome/lysosome - Endocytic pathway
>recycling or degradative/ downregulate signals by downregulate receptors
What are the 3 types of secretion from the trans Golgi network in the Secretory/Exocytic membrane trafficking pathway?
- Constitutive secretion: At trans Golgi network proteins can be constitutively secreted: Don’t need to have signals on the proteins to end up at membrane
- Regulated secretion: sorted into secretary vesicle and held until a signal from the cell
- Enzymes pass through and are sorted within a lysosome
What are the 2 outcomes of the endocytic pathway?
- Internalize protein and degrade it by lysosome
- Can move receptor to different area of cell by recycling.
Where do the Exocytic and Endocytic pathways intersect?
Vesicles from both pathways intersect on the way to the lysosome.
What are 2 post transcription modifications that can be done to proteins as they transit the ER and Golgi?
Proteins can be modified (glycosylated by addition of oligosaccharides (many sugars added at once) and proteolytically cleaved as they transit the ER and Golgi
What organelle is not apart of the secretory pathway?
Mitochondria
What processing occurs for proteins at 1) ER lumen 2) Early Golgi 3) Later Golgi?
1) ER lumen
>Addition of pre-formed oligosaccharide to an asparagine amino acid in a consensus sequence (glocalization)
>Sugar group is similar size to amino acid, so multiple additions can weigh more than the initial polypeptide, so impact what the protein folds like and becomes in the ER and Golgi
2) Early Golgi
>The oligosaccharide group is trimmed
3) Late Golgi
>Further sugars are added and the structure can be further branched
What are 2 purposes of glycolisation?
- To assist the folding of the protein
- For a ligand:
>Intracellular for trafficking/sorting
>Outside the cell for interactions with extracellular matrix and with proteins/sugars on other cells.
How are proteins from the same gene be slightly differet?
All proteins from a gene will be the same, but the modifications will be slightly different due to the range of interactions with enzymes; they’re similar but not exactly the same
What are Saccharomyces cerevisiae?
Budding yeast
What are two factors which make a model suitable for membrane trafficking?
- Simplicity - trafficking occurs on a cellular scale so a single celled organism is likely to provide information.
- Analysis of specific types of secretion e.g regulated secretion, would need a model system that is able to perform this function.
Why can Saccharomyces cerevisiae (budding yeast) not be used to study regulated secretion?
As budding yeast do not do regulated secretion.
What are 4 advantages to Yeast as a model organism for membrane trafficking?
- Amenable for genetic studies (can grow as haploid and diploid cells)
- Entire genome sequence known since 1996 (and is fully annotated), cheap and easy to grow in large quantities (good for biochemical studies),
- limited gene diversity (both ±)
> Not much redundancy (take away one protein not another doing the same job) - fundamental pathways conserved
What are 3 disadvantages to Yeast as a model organism for membrane trafficking?
- Limited cell-cell contact so unlikely to be informative about multicellularity
- Small (5µm), so high resolution imaging studies of intracellular compartments is difficult.
- Has a cell wall which can preclude some types of studies
>E.g. effects micro injection work.
What were the 3 membrane trafficking pathways studied in yeast and which screens were used for them>
- Secretory pathway by the SEC screen
>Screening Identifying things which could not be secreted - Vacuolar protein screen (VPS) for secretory pathway leading to lysosomes (in yeast lysosome is the vacuole)
- Endocytic pathway by END screen
What did Novick and Schekman study in yeast about membrane trafficking?
Investigated the secretory pathway using SEC screening to identify the SEC genes involved.
What was observed in the genetic screen “SEC”?
> Disrupted membrane trafficking getting into ER, getting out of ER, entering Golgi, leaving trans Golgi network, docking with membrane.
> So if secretion was disrupted (without SEC genes), the cell would increase its density as vesicles carrying proteins would accumulate.
How did Novick and Schekman define their SEC mutants?
They defined secretory mutants as those strains which fail to export active Invertase and Acid Phosphatase (enzymes), but continued to synthesize protein under restrictive growth conditions.
How did Novick and Schekman measure the accumulation of vesicles (density)?
By electron microscopy
What were the results of Novick’s and Schekman’s SEC screens on yeast?
- Wild-Type
>Yeast had no build up secretory vesicles. - Sec- mutants
>Many vesicles accumulated (shows these SEC genes mediate the secretory pathway).
How many SEC genes did Novick and Schekman discover and what were they used for?
> 23 genes were identified by grouping mutants with similar phenotypes (genetic crossing).
> At least 23 distinct gene products are required to ensure the transport of proteins from the ER to the plasma membrane.
How did Novick and Schekman put different SEC- mutants in sequential order?
Mutant groups were placed in sequential order by combining mutants from different classes and by use of more detailed analysis of protein modifications.
Describe the a) fate of secreted proteins b) the defective function for the 5 classes of SEC genes
- Class A
a) Accumulation of vesicles in cytosol
b) Defective transport into the ER - Class B
a) Accumulation of vesicles in rough ER
b) Defective budding of vesicles from the rough ER - Class C
a) Accumulation in ER-to-Golgi transport vesicles
b) Defective fusion of transport vesicles with Golgi - Class D
a) Accumulation in Golgi
b) Defective transport from Golgi to secretory vesicles - Class E
a) Accumulation in secretory vesicles
b) Defective transport from secretory vesicles to cell surface.
How did Novick and Schekman use the pheromone “Alpha factor” to measure were each where SEC- mutant failed post-transcriptional modifications?
> Alpha factor is modified at each stage of the secretory pathway in yeast:
1. In ER it gets modified by oligosaccharides
2. Moved to Golgi, more sugars added
3. Moved to later Golgi, lots of sugars added
4. Late Golgi, proteolytically cleaved into small peptides
5. Alpha then secreted
Could detect if Alpha factor is secreted and if not, could look for each SEC mutant at which stage of modification it stopped based off of its size (how many sugars added) using a western blot.
What were three reason to why Novick and Schekman couldn’t identify all the SEC genes/proteins involved in the secretory/exocytic pathway?
- They only identified temperature sensitive mutants. Not all genes when mutated will cause this phenotype.
- They only considered secretion to the plasma membrane so defects in transport to endosome or vacuole/ lysosome would not be identified.
- Any ‘redundantly’ functioning genes would not be identified though yeast has relatively low gene redundancy which underpinned the success of these approaches.
What decision is made at the Trans Golgi Network (TGN) for membrane trafficking?
A decision is made in TGN (trans Golgi network) whether to traffic to surface of cell or towards lysosome.
What do mutations in trafficking from the endosome to lysosome effect?
Both the biosynthetic (secretory) and degradative (endocytic) pathways.
What is endocytosis?
Endocytosis is the process through which the plasma membrane invaginates into the cell resulting in the production of a vesicle that is then able to fuse with endosomes and enter the endo-lysosomal membrane system.
What are 3 reasons why endocytosis is important?
- Retrieval of molecules that formed part of the secretory vesicle for recycling
- Downregulation of signals
>E.g. change receptors - Remodelling cell surface lipid and protein composition
What are the 4 stages of the endocytic pathway?
- Plasma membrane to endocytic vesicle (invagination)
- Endocytic vesicle to early endosome
- Early endosome to late endosome (MVB) or recycling to the plasma membrane
- Late endosome to Golgi or vacuole/ Lysosome (recycled)
Why is the actin cytoskeleton important for invagination during endocytosis and when the cell is under which conditions is this important?
> The cytoskeleton helps to drive the formation of the endocytic vesicle by generating force and pulling the plasma membrane inward.
> Actin cytoskeleton role for invagination is important for cells under pressure (Yeast cells are high in pressure as contain a lot of sugar, so is very useful for them).
What are the 2 major functions of lysosomes (which are the vacuole in yeast)?
- Degradation of extracellular material taken up by endocytosis.
- Degradation of intracellular components by autophagy (When organelles fuse with lysosome and contents get degraded).
Why must lysozymes be kept compartmentalised inside lysosomes by the Trans Golgi network?
As they would degrade organelles and proteins if in the cytoplasm.
Describe the Vacuolar Sorting screens (VPS) in yeast
> Carboxypeptidase Y (CPY is an enzyme found in vacuole/ lysosome) is normally transported to the lysosome/vacuole having been trafficked through the ER and Golgi.
> Using colour based assays, it was measured which mutated cells secreted CPY to the vacuole for degradation or if the vesicles built up.
How many Vacuolar Protein Sorting (VPS) genes were identified by VPS screens in yeast?
60 vacuolar protein sorting (vps) genes
Like with Alpha factor in the SEC screen how was the phase of Carboxypeptidase Y (CPY) processed measured in different VPS- mutant yeast cells?
> Like Alpha factor, CPY had sugars added at different stages so the size could be measured of the enzyme to know at which stage each VPS- mutant disrupted post-transcriptional modification:
- In ER
>Sugars added (called P1 form) - In Golgi
>More sugars added (P2 form) - Vacuole
>Sequence gets cut off forming active enzyme in the vacuole.
What is a multivesicular body (MVB) and its function?
When the whole endosome (containing what we want to be degraded) begins to invaginate and pinch off, a MVB forms: an organelle packed full of vesicles and fuse with lysosome to be degraded.
What are the 4 possible destinations of a vesicle from the Trans Golgi network and which one does CPY enzyme take?
- To plasma membrane
- To early endosome
- To late endosome/MVB
>CPY does this pathway - To vacuole
Describe the CPY pathway to the late endosome in 4 steps
- When in late Golgi, P2 form of CPY is recognised by receptor protein Vps10.
- Vps10 tail is recognised by cytoplasmic factors and is then sorted into a vesicle allowing it to traffic to late endosome
- In late endosome, the CPY is dissociated and traffics onto the vacuole/ lysosome
- When Vps10 is released, its tail is recognised by an adaptor protein which sorts it into vesicles to be returned to late Golgi