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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

AP2 complex protein is an essential clathrin adaptor protein during clathrin mediated endocytosis. However, this view has been challenged in simple organisms. To gain insight into this conflict, the role of AP2 in clathrin localization and other clathrin related processes were assessed in Dictyostelium discoideum. In Dictyostelium, deleting function AP2 caused mild phenotypes in clathrin membrane localization, cytokinesis, osmoregulation and cell development. This supported the idea that AP2 have significant roles in multicellular organisms but not in unicellular system. Clathrin mediated processes carries important function not only on the plasma membrane but also on some internal organelles. But clathrin coated vesicles on internal organelles are not as well studied as on the plasma membrane. To understand more of the clathrin coated vesicles on internal organelles, the clathrin coated vesicles on Dictyostelium discoideum contractile vacuole were studied. Contractile vacuole associated clathrin coated vesicles contained clathrin adaptor proteins AP2, AP180, and epsin but not Hip1r. The absence of AP180 or AP2 produced abnormal large vacuoles, but the absence of epsin did not cause any detectable contractile vacuole abnormality. The enlarged contractile vacuoles in AP180 minus cells were caused by excessive homotypic fusion among contractile vacuoles. Using both GST-pull down and immunostaining AP180 was identified as the possible adaptor protein for a contractile vacuole-associated SNARE protein, Vamp7B. Therefore recycling Vamp7B from contractile vacuole by AP180 through clathrin coated vesicles could be an efficient way to prevent excessive homotypic fusions among contractile vacuoles. Dictyostelium contractile vacuoles offer a valuable system to study clathrin coated vesicles on cell internal organelles. / text

The BEACH family proteins are conserved in all eukaryotes and are important for membrane trafficking. Defects in specific BEACH proteins have been linked to severe human disorders. For example, loss of human LYST protein causes the Chediak-Higashi Syndrome (CHS), a lethal disorder that affects lysosomal function. I postulate that different classes of BEACH proteins contribute distinct cellular functions in specific organelles. Based on this functional specificity, I hypothesize that each class of BEACH proteins must localize to their respective organelle where they are known to function. Unfortunately, the localization of most mammalian BEACH proteins is not known and no localization signal has been determined for any BEACH protein. Previous work showed that the Dictyostelium LvsA protein localizes and functions on the contractile vacuole while LvsB localizes and functions on the lysosome. Thus, Dictyostelium is a good model system to understand how BEACH proteins localize to specific organelles. Using a knock-in approach and parasexual techniques, I generated a collection of LvsA truncation mutants tagged with GFP and expressed them in different cell lines. Hence I can test the ability of each mutant protein to localize on contractile vacuoles by fluorescence microscopy. I show here that LvsA requires two regions to localize on the contractile vacuole: the N-terminal 140-457 amino acids and the BEACH. In addition, the expression of the N-terminal 651 amino acids of LvsA causes a dominant negative effect suggesting a possible functional protein-protein interaction within this region. Furthermore, sequence alignment analysis shows that this N-terminal region is only conserved within each class of BEACH family proteins. This finding supports our hypothesis and suggests that diversity within the N-terminal region may be due to the specialized targeting sequences of each class of BEACH proteins. Taken together, these results suggest that the conserved BEACH domain may serve as a general localization sequence while the N-terminal segment is responsible for targeting these proteins to their distinct organelles. This study will facilitate the identification of localization signals in other BEACH proteins which is important to dissect the molecular mechanism of their respective functions. / text

The cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells contains several membrane-delimited compartments of specific molecular compositions and functions. Among those, the vacuole of fungal cells is often described as an organelle equivalent to the lysosomes of animal cells and the vacuoles of plant cells. These compartments indeed share two similar features: they contain a wide variety of hydrolases and are the most acidic compartments of the cell, which accounts for their key role in the intracellular degradation of macromolecules. In humans, dysfunctions of the lysosomes often give rise to lysosomal related diseases, such as lysosomal storage disorders. These are a class of metabolic disorders caused by the accumulation of non-degraded macromolecules or impaired export of hydrolytic degradation products. Cystinosis is an autosomal recessive disorder (1/200 000 incidence) generally associated with renal dysfunctions. It is caused by the accumulation and crystallization of cystine, the disulfide of cysteine, into the lumen of lysosomes. Cystinosin, the causative gene product of cystinosis, is present at the lysosomal membrane and catalyses the export of cystine from this compartment. The human cystinosin is a member of the Lysosomal Cystine Transporter (LCT) family. LCT proteins are conserved in all eukaryotic species and are defined by the presence of highly conserved PQ-loop motifs. <p>During this thesis work, we have studied three LCT proteins of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, named Ypq1, Ypq2 and Ypq3 (Yeast PQ-loop proteins 1, 2 and 3). We first showed that these proteins localize to the vacuolar membrane. We next studied the roles of these proteins, the regulation of their genes and the mechanisms and signals implicated in their delivery to the vacuolar membrane. We also contributed to the functional characterization of a mammalian homologue of yeast Ypq proteins, named rPqlc2. <p>In the first part of this work, we report that the Ypq proteins are most probably implicated in the export of basic amino acids from the vacuole to the cytosol. More precisely, Ypq2 and Ypq3 behave like vacuolar arginine and lysine exporters, respectively. Interestingly, the mammalian rPqlc2 protein expressed in yeast reaches the vacuolar membrane and functions as an orthologue of the Ypq proteins. Our results also reveal that the expression of the YPQ3 gene is regulated by the Lys14 transcription factor, responsible for the transcriptional activation of the LYS genes encoding enzymes implicated in the biosynthesis of lysine. We have also noted that, in general, the expression of the expression of the YPQ genes is regulated according to the quality of the nitrogen source available in the extracellular medium, eg. YPQ3 is sensitive to the nitrogen catabolite repression regulatory mechanism. <p>In the last part of this thesis work, we investigated the intracellular trafficking of the Ypq proteins and show that these predominantly reach the vacuolar membrane via the ALP (alkaline phosphatase) pathway due to the presence of a dileucine-based sorting signal in their sequences. Interestingly, a similar mechanism seems responsible for targeting to the yeast vacuole of the mammalian rPqlc2 protein.<p><p><p>Une caractéristique des cellules eucaryotes est leur organisation en compartiment internes délimité par une membrane lipidique, appelé organelles. Ces compartiments intracellulaires présentent une composition lipidique et protéique particulaire conforme à leur identité et fonction. Les lysosomes de cellules de mammifères et la vacuole fongique jouent un rôle clé dans la digestion intracellulaire de macromolécules et de ce fait leurs lumières sont enrichis d’enzymes hydrolytiques nécessaires à cette action. Des disfonctionnements du lysosome peuvent être la conséquence de pathologie chez l’homme, regroupé sous le nom de maladie lysosomale, lié à un à une accumulation de macromolécules non digéré ou un default d’export des produits d’hydrolysé depuis la lumière du lysosome. La cystinose est une maladie autosomale récessive avec une faible fréquence d’incidence (1/200 000) qui regroupe trois formes cliniques :deux formes rénales graves et une forme extra-rénale. Cette maladie est due à une accumulation et cristallisation de cystine dans la lumière du lysosome qui est corrélé à des mutations ponctuelles dans le gène CTNS qui code pour l’exporteur de cystine, la cystinosine. Cette protéine est un membre de la famille LCT (Lysosomal Cystine Transporter) qui possède des représentants chez les cellules animales, végétales et fongiques. Les protéines de la famille possèdent une taille et une topologie prédite similaire (7 segments transmembranaires) et on retrouve aussi au sein de ces protéines deux exemplaires de motifs PQ. Lors de ce travail de thèse nous nous sommes intéressés à trois membres de la famille LCT chez Saccharomyces cerevisiae que nous avons nommé Ypq1, Ypq2 et Ypq3 pour Yeast PQ-loop proteins. Ces protéines n’ayant pas fait l’objet de nombreuses études, nous nous sommes orientés vers une analyse fonctionnelle et transcriptionnelle. De plus, nous avons également étudié les mécanismes et signaux impliqué dans leur adressage vers la vacuole. Finalement, nous avons également inclus dans notre étude un homologue mammalien de ces protéines, rPqlc2. <p>\ / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Recent preclinical reports have provided evidence that endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs), a subset of endothelial progenitor cells, significantly improve vessel formation, largely due to their robust vasculogenic potential. While it has been known that the Rho family GTPase Cdc42 is involved in this ECFC-driven vessel formation process, the effect of extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness on its activity during vessel formation is largely unknown. Using a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based Cdc42 biosensor, we examined the spatio-temporal activity of Cdc42 of ECFCs in three-dimensional (3D) collagen matrices with varying stiffness. The result revealed that ECFCs exhibited an increase in Cdc42 activity in a soft (150 Pa) matrix, while they were much less responsive in a rigid (1 kPa) matrix. In both soft and rigid matrices, Cdc42 was highly activated near vacuoles. However, its activity is higher in a soft matrix than that in a rigid matrix. The observed Cdc42 activity was closely associated with vacuole formation. Soft matrices induced higher Cdc42 activity and faster vacuole formation than rigid matrices. However, vacuole area is not dependent on the stiffness of matrices. Time courses of Cdc42 activity and vacuole formation data revealed that Cdc42 activity proceeds vacuole formation. Collectively, these results suggest that matrix stiffness is critical in regulating Cdc42 activity in ECFCs and its activation is an important step in early vacuole formation.