Membrane Trafficking Flashcards
lecs 12,13 yeast screening and membrane compartmentalisation
What is membrane trafficking and why do eukryotic cells need it?
- The movement of membrane-bound vesicles within the cell
- Allows complexity
- Enzymes can modify specific subsets of proteins in certain environments
-Retrieval of proteins back to ‘resident’ compartment
What is the exocytic pathway?
- AKA secretory/biosynthetic
- Protein synthesis takes place on ribosomes on the rough ER
- Transported into ER membrane and folded in the lumen
- Packed and bud off into vesicles at trans golgi network
- Trafficked to function within an organelle where they fuse with the plasma membrane via SNAREs
What is the endocytic pathway?
- AKA recycling or degradative
- Material coming from outside of the cell entering a vesicle
- Can be sent to lysosome for degradation or Golgi apparatus for recycling
Where are proteins modified?
Moving through the ER and golgi
- Processes such as glycosylation and addition of oligosaccharides
Are mitochondria part of the membrane trafficking pathway?
NO
What is glycosylation?
- When protein enters ER it can be modified
- Addition of sugars
-Transferred as a large single unit in the ER - Sugars can be modified and add complexity
- Each sugar added is a similar size to an amino acid
- If it is added as transport into ER happens it will effect the folding
What is the purpose of glycosylation?
- To assist folding
- As a ligand
- Outside the cell for interactions with extracellular matrix with proteins/sugars on other cells
- Interactions with pathogenic molecules
What genetic organisms are used to identify trafficking pathways?
- Yeast
-Drosophila - Slime mould
- Zebrafish
What makes a model suitable for studies on membrane trafficking?
- Simplicity (single-celled organism)
- A model system that is able to perform the function that your interested in
What are the pros in using yeast as a model organism?
- Can grow as haploid and diploid so recessive mutations can be studied
- Entire genome is known and annotated
- Cheap and easy to grow in large quantities
- Limited gene diversity
- Fundamental pathways are conserved
What are the cons in using yeast as a model organism?
- Limited cell-cell contact
- Very small
- Has a cell wall which can preclude some types of study
What is the Sec Yeast screening used for?
Identify genes that were mutated and cause a defect in the capacity for cells to secrete proteins to the cell surface
What is the End yeast screening used for?
Identify genes involved in endocytosis
What is the VPS yeast screening used for
In yeast the lysosome is called the vacuole
- Identified genes that were destined for the vacuole/lysosome
Who did the key experiment regarding the Sec Pathway?
Novick and Schekman (1980)
- Secretory pathway in yeast
What did Novick and Schekman predict?
That if proteins couldn’t be secreted the cell would increase in density as the vesicles carrying the proteins accumulate
What was N + S’s experimental analysis?
- Cells were analysed for their ability to secret enzymes (invertase and acid phosphatase) at permissive and restrictive temps
- Denatured enzymes= cannot secrete
- Secretory mutants were the strains that couldn’t export the enzymes but carried on synthesising proteins in restrictive conditions
- Also looked through electron microscopy at subcellular structures
What genes were identified through Sec screening?
At least 23 genes were identified by grouping mutants with similar phenotypes where the producing products are required to ensure transport of proteins from ER to PM
What is alpha factor?
- Secreted by cells as a pheromone
- Pre-protein, glycosylated in the ER
- Size can be determined by western plotting
- In later stages of the pathway the signal sequence is cleaved off and the remaining protein is cut into smaller peptides and secreted
- example of a protein which enters the ER, is glycosylated and is cleaved
Why weren’t all of the genes/proteins involved in the exocytic pathway identified by N + S ?
- Set up only with temperature sensitive mutants
- Only considered secretion to the plasma membrane so defect in transport to endosome or vacuole would not be identified
- Any redundantly functioning genes would not be identified