Faculty Opinions recommendation of Visualization of protein compartmentation within the plasma membrane of living yeast cells.

Author(s):  
Howard Riezman
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
E. Keyhani

The matrix of biological membranes consists of a lipid bilayer into which proteins or protein aggregates are intercalated. Freeze-fracture techni- ques permit these proteins, perhaps in association with lipids, to be visualized in the hydrophobic regions of the membrane. Thus, numerous intramembrane particles (IMP) have been found on the fracture faces of membranes from a wide variety of cells (1-3). A recognized property of IMP is their tendency to form aggregates in response to changes in experi- mental conditions (4,5), perhaps as a result of translational diffusion through the viscous plane of the membrane. The purpose of this communica- tion is to describe the distribution and size of IMP in the plasma membrane of yeast (Candida utilis).Yeast cells (ATCC 8205) were grown in synthetic medium (6), and then harvested after 16 hours of culture, and washed twice in distilled water. Cell pellets were suspended in growth medium supplemented with 30% glycerol and incubated for 30 minutes at 0°C, centrifuged, and prepared for freeze-fracture, as described earlier (2,3).


Author(s):  
E. Keyhani

The mutagenic effect of ethidium bromide on the mitochondrial DNA is well established. Using thin section electron microscopy, it was shown that when yeast cells were grown in the presence of ethidium bromide, besides alterations in the mitochondria, the plasma membrane also showed alterations consisting of 75 to 110 nm-deep pits. Furthermore, ethidium bromide induced an increase in the length and number of endoplasmic reticulum and in the number of intracytoplasmic vesicles.Freeze-fracture, by splitting the hydrophobic region of the membrane, allows the visualization of the surface view of the membrane, and consequently, any alteration induced by ethidium bromide on the membrane can be better examined by this method than by the thin section method.Yeast cells, Candida utilis. were grown in the presence of 35 μM ethidium bromide. Cells were harvested and freeze-fractured according to the procedure previously described.


2005 ◽  
Vol 169 (6) ◽  
pp. 897-908 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cosima Luedeke ◽  
Stéphanie Buvelot Frei ◽  
Ivo Sbalzarini ◽  
Heinz Schwarz ◽  
Anne Spang ◽  
...  

Polarized cells frequently use diffusion barriers to separate plasma membrane domains. It is unknown whether diffusion barriers also compartmentalize intracellular organelles. We used photobleaching techniques to characterize protein diffusion in the yeast endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Although a soluble protein diffused rapidly throughout the ER lumen, diffusion of ER membrane proteins was restricted at the bud neck. Ultrastructural studies and fluorescence microscopy revealed the presence of a ring of smooth ER at the bud neck. This ER domain and the restriction of diffusion for ER membrane proteins through the bud neck depended on septin function. The membrane-associated protein Bud6 localized to the bud neck in a septin-dependent manner and was required to restrict the diffusion of ER membrane proteins. Our results indicate that Bud6 acts downstream of septins to assemble a fence in the ER membrane at the bud neck. Thus, in polarized yeast cells, diffusion barriers compartmentalize the ER and the plasma membrane along parallel lines.


2016 ◽  
Vol 473 (9) ◽  
pp. 1203-1213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong-Sung Park ◽  
Ju-Yeon Kim ◽  
Cheol-Won Yun

Aspergillus fumigatus is an opportunistic fungal pathogen for immunocompromised patients, and genes involved in siderophore metabolism have been identified as virulence factors. Recently, we identified the membrane transporters sit1 and sit2, which are putative virulence factors of A. fumigatus; sit1 and sit2 are homologous to yeast Sit1, and sit1 and sit2 gene expression was up-regulated after iron depletion. When expressed heterologously in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, sit1 and sit2 were localized to the plasma membrane; sit1 efficiently complemented ferrichrome (FC) and ferrioxamine B (FOB) uptake in yeast cells, whereas sit2 complemented only FC uptake. Deletion of sit1 resulted in a decrease in FOB and FC uptake, and deletion of sit2 resulted in a decrease in FC uptake in A. fumigatus. It is of interest that a sit1 and sit2 double-deletion mutant resulted in a synergistic decrease in FC uptake activity. Both sit1 and sit2 were localized to the plasma membrane in A. fumigatus. The expression levels of the sit1 and sit2 genes were dependent on hapX under low-but not high-iron conditions. Furthermore, mirB, and sidA gene expression was up-regulated and sreA expression down-regulated when sit1 and sit2 were deleted. Although sit1 and sit2 failed to affect mouse survival rate, these genes affected conidial killing activity. Taken together, our results suggest that sit1 and sit2 are siderophore transporters and putative virulence factors localized to the plasma membrane.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veneta Gerganova ◽  
Iker Lamas ◽  
David M. Rutkowski ◽  
Aleksandar Vještica ◽  
Daniela Gallo Castro ◽  
...  

AbstractCells self-organize using reaction-diffusion and fluid-flow principles. Whether bulk membrane flows contribute to cell patterning has not been established. Here, using mathematical modelling, optogenetics and synthetic probes, we show that polarized exocytosis causes lateral membrane flows away from regions of membrane insertion. Plasma membrane-associated proteins with sufficiently low diffusion and/or detachment rates couple to the flows and deplete from areas of exocytosis. In rod-shaped fission yeast cells, zones of Cdc42 GTPase activity driving polarized exocytosis are limited by GTPase activating proteins (GAPs). We show that membrane flows pattern the GAP Rga4 distribution and coupling of a synthetic GAP to membrane flows is sufficient to establish the rod shape. Thus, membrane flows induced by Cdc42-dependent exocytosis form a negative feedback restricting the zone of Cdc42 activity.One Sentence SummaryExocytosis causes bulk membrane flows that drag associated proteins and form a negative feedback restricting the exocytic site.


2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (25) ◽  
pp. 4021-4032 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Arcones ◽  
Carlos Sacristán ◽  
Cesar Roncero

The major chitin synthase activity in yeast cells, Chs3, has become a paradigm in the study of the intracellular traffic of transmembrane proteins due to its tightly regulated trafficking. This includes an efficient mechanism for the maintenance of an extensive reservoir of Chs3 at the trans-Golgi network/EE, which allows for the timely delivery of the protein to the plasma membrane. Here we show that this intracellular reservoir of Chs3 is maintained not only by its efficient AP-1–mediated recycling, but also by recycling through the retromer complex, which interacts with Chs3 at a defined region in its N-terminal cytosolic domain. Moreover, the N-terminal ubiquitination of Chs3 at the plasma membrane by Rsp5/Art4 distinctly labels the protein and regulates its retromer-mediated recycling by enabling Chs3 to be recognized by the ESCRT machinery and degraded in the vacuole. Therefore the combined action of two independent but redundant endocytic recycling mechanisms, together with distinct labels for vacuolar degradation, determines the final fate of the intracellular traffic of the Chs3 protein, allowing yeast cells to regulate morphogenesis, depending on environmental constraints.


2001 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 1528-1534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrı́cia A. Nunes ◽  
Sandra Tenreiro ◽  
Isabel Sá-Correia

ABSTRACT As predicted based on structural considerations, we show results indicating that the member of the major facilitator superfamily encoded by Saccharomyces cerevisiae open reading frameYIL120w is a multidrug resistance determinant. Yil120wp was implicated in yeast resistance to ketoconazole and quinidine, but not to the stereoisomer quinine; the gene was thus named QDR1. Qdr1p was proved to alleviate the deleterious effects of quinidine, revealed by the loss of cell viability following sudden exposure of the unadapted yeast population to the drug, and to allow the earlier eventual resumption of exponential growth under quinidine stress. However, QDR1 gene expression had no detectable effect on the susceptibility of yeast cells previously adapted to quinidine. Fluorescence microscopy observation of the distribution of the Qdr1-green fluorescent protein fusion protein in living yeast cells indicated that Qdr1p is a plasma membrane protein. We also show experimental evidence indicating that yeast adaptation to growth with quinidine involves the induction of active expulsion of the drug from preloaded cells, despite the fact that this antiarrhythmic and antimalarial quinoline ring-containing drug is not present in the yeast natural environment. However, we were not able to prove that Qdr1p is directly implicated in this export. Results clearly suggest that there are other unidentified quinidine resistance mechanisms that can be used in the absence of QDR1.


2017 ◽  
Vol 130 (18) ◽  
pp. 2996-3008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jochen Kustermann ◽  
Yehui Wu ◽  
Lucia Rieger ◽  
Dirk Dedden ◽  
Tamara Phan ◽  
...  

2008 ◽  
Vol 180 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoyu Zhang ◽  
Kelly Orlando ◽  
Bing He ◽  
Fengong Xi ◽  
Jian Zhang ◽  
...  

The exocyst is an octameric protein complex implicated in tethering post-Golgi secretory vesicles at the plasma membrane in preparation for fusion. However, it is not clear how the exocyst is targeted to and physically associates with specific domains of the plasma membrane and how its functions are regulated at those regions. We demonstrate that the N terminus of the exocyst component Sec3 directly interacts with phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate. In addition, we have identified key residues in Sec3 that are critical for its binding to the guanosine triphosphate–bound form of Cdc42. Genetic analyses indicate that the dual interactions of Sec3 with phospholipids and Cdc42 control its function in yeast cells. Disrupting these interactions not only blocks exocytosis and affects exocyst polarization but also leads to defects in cell morphogenesis. We propose that the interactions of Sec3 with phospholipids and Cdc42 play important roles in exocytosis and polarized cell growth.


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