Vesicular Transport Flashcards
lecs 14,15,16: vesicular transport, membrane contact sites and adaptor proteins
What are the different types of coated vesicles and what do they do?
- Clathrin coated vesicles (TGN to lysosomes/ bud from cell surface)
- COP1 vesicles (important for froward and retrograde transport through the golgi)
- COP2 vesicles (ER to Golgi complex)
What are the essential components for all transport vesicle formation?
- GTPase
- Adaptor proteins
- Coat
What do adaptor proteins do?
Recognises signals in cargo and ensures they get packaged into a coated vesicle by linking them to the coat
How do small GTPases work?
- Molecular switch
- Exist in a inactive GDP form
- Conversion of inactive to active requires exchange from GDP to GTP mediated by GEFs
- GTP to GDP catalysed by GAP (GTPase activating proteins) which help GTP hydrolysis
How is a protein coat like that on Cop II coated vesicles formed?
The recruitment of cytosolic components onto a specific membrane, these membrane proteins can cycle on and off the vesicle
What are small GTPases used for in terms of transport vesicle formation?
In their active form, they are important for the recruitment of adaptor proteins
What are GEFs and GAPs?
GEF = Determines the amount of active GTPase there is in a cell (regulates GDP-> GTP)
GAPs= GTPase activating proteins which help hydrolyse GTP ( regulates GTP-> GDP)
The balance between these two depends on how active the G protein is in general, v. important!
How are GTPases seen in vesicular transport into the nucleus (RAN)
- Ran is in its GDP form outside the nucleus
- Cargo binds to nuclear receptors and enters
- GEF is localised to chromatin and transfers RanGDP to RanGTP
- GTP binds to the cargo-receptor complex, cargo dissociates due to conformational change and stays in the nucleus
- RAN GTP exists nucleus where it encounters GAP which hydrolyses RAN forming RAN GDP which no longer binds to the nuclear receptors
- The GEF being in the nucleus ensures directionality
What are the specific components for COP II?
GTPase: Sar 1
Adaptor: Sec23/24
Coat: Sec 13/31
(Liz says dw too much ab the numbers just remember its a Sec complex and the categories)
How is a COPII vesicle formed?
- GEF for SAR1 in membrane exchanges GDP for active GTP complex allowing recruitment of adaptor complex, Sec 23 unit binds to Sar1
- Sec 24 segment of the adaptor recognises the signal on the cargo receptor which allows it to be incorporated into the COPII vesicle
- The actual vesicle is formed by budding of donor membrane
- When the bud is completely formed it buds off to form a coated vesicle
- It is quite packed inside the bud to try and avoid the escaping of proteins
What do coat proteins provide?
A structural scaffold
Describe centrifugation to get ER membranes (used for in vitro reconstitution of COPII)
- Isolate ER membranes through homogenisation and centrifugation
- The centrifugation tube as an increasing gradient of sucrose conc.
- The rough ER at bottom (high sucrose conc.) the smooth ER float at top (low sucrose conc.)
- Rough ER extracted with needle
- By selecting ER membranes with specifically labelled proteins and vesicles with specifically labelled cargo proteins you can then run this separate rough ER through a sucrose gradient and observe what makes up the ER as the vesicles and ER will separate at different bands
What was shown in the reconstitution assay regarding what was needed to make a COPII vesicle?
- Sar 1
- Sec 23/24
- Sec 13/31 (the coat)
- ATP
-GTP
Sar 1 and Sec23/24 are recruited from the cytosol
What does the SNARE in the vesicle do?
- Target the vesicle to acceptor compartment
- Uncoating of vesicle needs to occur for fusion
- Accumulation can occur if uncoating doesn’t happen
What can the adaptor protein also act as on COPII?
- A GAP for Sar 1 (aka turns it off)
- This GAP activity is enhanced when coat is recruited meaning uncoating can occur when needed
- Summary: Sar1 is needed in active form to recruit the adaptor and form the coat, once this forms and vesicle buds off the Sec23 acts as a GAP and inactivates Sar1 to disassemble the membrane
How are looking at mutant GTPases good experimentally?
- You can see which stage of trafficking doesn’t occur when certain GTPases are mutant
- E.g. expression of Sar1 in its GDP form inhibits COPII formation because it cannot recruit the adaptor protein etc.
What is AP2?
A major clathrin coated vesicle adaptor protein
What is the structure of AP2?
- Two large subunits: alpha and beta
- Determinant which allows binding to clathrin
- Smaller subunits which recognise cargo