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While overall hydrophobicity is generally recognized as the main characteristic of transmembrane (TM) α-helices, the only membrane system for which there are detailed quantitative data on how different amino acids contribute to the overall efficiency of membrane insertion is the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) of eukaryotic cells. Here, we provide comparable data for TIM23-mediated membrane protein insertion into the inner mitochondrial membrane of yeast cells. We find that hydrophobicity and the location of polar and aromatic residues are strong determinants of membrane insertion. These results parallel what has been found previously for the ER. However, we see striking differences between the effects elicited by charged residues flanking the TM segments when comparing the mitochondrial inner membrane and the ER, pointing to an unanticipated difference between the two insertion systems.

Inter-helix hydrogen bonding involving asparagine (Asn, N), glutamine (Gln, Q), aspartic acid (Asp, D) or glutamic acid (Glu, E) can drive efficient di- or trimerization of transmembrane helices in detergent micelles and lipid bilayers. Likewise, Asn-Asn and Asp-Asp pairs can promote the formation of helical hairpins during translocon-mediated membrane protein assembly in the endoplasmic reticulum. By in vitro translation of model integral membrane protein constructs in the presence of rough microsomes, we show that Asn- or Asp-mediated interactions with a neighbouring transmembrane helix can enhance the membrane insertion efficiency of a marginally hydrophobic transmembrane segment. Our observations suggest that inter-helix hydrogen bonds can form during Sec61 translocon-assisted insertion and thus could be important for membrane protein assembly.

Hydrophobic stop-transfer sequences generally serve to halt the translocation of polypeptide chains across the endoplasmic reticulum membrane and become integrated as transmembrane alpha-helices. Using engineered glycosylation sites as topology reporters, we show that the length of the nascent chain between a hydrophobic segment and the carboxy terminus of the protein can affect stop-transfer efficiency. We also show that glycosylation sites located close to a protein's C terminus are modified in two distinct kinetic phases, one fast and one slow. Our findings suggest that membrane integration of a hydrophobic segment is not simply a question of thermodynamic equilibrium, but can be influenced by details of the translocation mechanism.

In Escherichia coli, both secretory and inner membrane proteins initially are targeted to the core SecYEG inner membrane translocase. Previous work has also identified the peripherally associated SecA protein as well as the SecD, SecF and YajC inner membrane proteins as components of the translocase. Here, we use a cross-linking approach to show that hydrophilic portions of a co-translationally targeted inner membrane protein (FtsQ) are close to SecA and SecY, suggesting that insertion takes place at the SecA/Y interface. The hydrophobic FtsQ signal anchor sequence contacts both lipids and a novel 60 kDa translocase-associated component that we identify as YidC. YidC is homologous to Saccharomyces cerevisiae Oxa1p, which has been shown to function in a novel export pathway at the mitochondrial inner membrane. We propose that YidC is involved in the insertion of hydrophobic sequences into the lipid bilayer after initial recognition by the SecAYEG translocase.

Recently, a new protein translocation pathway, the twin-arginine translocation (TAT) pathway, has been identified in both bacteria and chloroplasts. To study the possible competition between the TAT- and the well-characterized Sec translocon-dependent pathways in Escherichia coli, we have fused the TorA TAT-targeting signal peptide to the Sec-dependent inner membrane protein leader peptidase (Lep). We find that the soluble, periplasmic P2 domain from Lep is re-routed by the TorA signal peptide into the TAT pathway. In contrast, the full-length TorA-Lep fusion protein is not re-routed into the TAT pathway, suggesting that Sec-targeting signals in Lep can override TAT-targeting information in the TorA signal peptide. We also show that the TorA signal peptide can be converted into a Sec-targeting signal peptide by increasing the hydrophobicity of its h-region. Thus, beyond the twin-arginine motif, the overall hydrophobicity of the signal peptide plays an important role in TAT versus Sec targeting. This is consistent with statistical data showing that TAT-targeting signal peptides in general have less hydrophobic h-regions than Sec-targeting signal peptides.

Two distinct protein targeting pathways can direct proteins to the Escherichia coli inner membrane. The Sec pathway involves the cytosolic chaperone SecB that binds to the mature region of pre-proteins. SecB targets the pre-protein to SecA that mediates pre-protein translocation through the SecYEG translocon. The SRP pathway is probably used primarily for the targeting and assembly of inner membrane proteins. It involves the signal recognition particle (SRP) that interacts with the hydrophobic targeting signal of nascent proteins. By using a protein cross-linking approach, we demonstrate here that the SRP pathway delivers nascent inner membrane proteins at the membrane. The SRP receptor FtsY, GTP and inner membranes are required for release of the nascent proteins from the SRP. Upon release of the SRP at the membrane, the targeted nascent proteins insert into a translocon that contains at least SecA, SecY and SecG. Hence, as appears to be the case for several other translocation systems, multiple targeting mechanisms deliver a variety of precursor proteins to a common membrane translocation complex of the E.coli inner membrane.

The orientation of many membrane proteins is determined by the asymmetric distribution of positively charged amino acid residues in cytoplasmic and translocated loops. The positive-inside rule states that loops with large amounts of these residues tend to have cytoplasmic locations. Orientations of constructs derived from the inner membrane protein leader peptidase from Escherichia coli were found to depend on the anionic phospholipid content of the membrane. Lowering the contents of anionic phospholipids facilitated membrane passage of positively charged loops. On the other hand, elevated contents of acidic phospholipids in the membrane rendered translocation more sensitive to positively charged residues. The results demonstrate that anionic lipids are determinants of membrane protein topology and suggest that interactions between negatively charged phospholipids and positively charged amino acid residues contribute to the orientation of membrane proteins.

The ProW protein, located in the inner membrane of Escherichia coli, has a very unusual topology with a 100-residue-long N-terminal tail protruding into the periplasmic space. We have studied the mechanism of membrane translocation of the periplasmic tail by analysing ProW-PhoA and ProW-Lep fusion proteins, both in wild-type cells and in cells with an impaired sec machinery. Our results show that the translocation efficiency is not affected by treatments that compromise the SecA and SecY functions, but that translocation is completely blocked by dissipation of the proton motive force or by the introduction of extra positively charged residues into the N-terminal tail. This suggests that the sec machinery can act properly only on domains located on the C-terminal side of a translocation signal, and that the N-terminal tail is driven through the membrane by a mechanism that involves the proton motive force.

The membrane electrochemical potential is critical for the export of most periplasmic proteins in Escherichia coli. Its exact role during insertion of integral inner membrane proteins, however, remains obscure. Using derivatives of the inner membrane protein leader peptidase (Lep), we now show that the membrane potential appears to stimulate the membrane translocation of chain segments containing negatively charged residues, that positively charged regions appear to be more easily translocated in the absence of a potential, and that certain Lep constructs insert with different topologies in the presence and absence of a membrane potential, suggesting that the electrochemical potential introduces an asymmetry between the topological effects of positively and negatively charged amino acids during the process of membrane protein insertion in E. coli.

Translocation of proteins across the inner membrane of Escherichia coli normally requires the participation of the sec machinery. A number of proteins are known, however, where translocation can proceed unhindered even when the function of either SecA or SecY, central components of the sec machinery, is blocked. We now show that there is a linear correlation between the length of a translocated region and its degree of dependence on SecA and SecY for lengths between 25 and 55 residues. We also find that positively charged residues have distinctly different topological effects during SecA dependent and SecA independent membrane protein insertion, and that a short cytoplasmic segment in Lep can be converted to a translocated segment (with a concomitant inversion of the original topology of the whole molecule) by increasing its length into the SecA/Y dependent realm.

Leader peptidase (Lep) is a central component of the secretory machinery of Escherichia coli, where it serves to remove signal peptides from secretory proteins. It spans the inner membrane twice with a large C-terminal domain protruding into the periplasmic space. To investigate the importance of the different structural domains for the catalytic activity, we have studied the effects of a large panel of Lep mutants on the processing of signal peptides, both in vivo and in vitro. Our data suggest that the first transmembrane and cytoplasmic regions are not directly involved in catalysis, but that the second transmembrane region and the region immediately following it may be in contact with the signal peptide and/or located spatially close to the active site of Lep.

Twenty three mitochondrial targeting sequences have been analysed with regard to their potential for forming amphiphilic helices. It is shown that most if not all of these sequences can be expected to form helices with high hydrophobic moments in a suitable environment. In the few cases studied so far, the segments of maximal hydrophobic moment coincide closely with 'critical' regions defined by deletions and point mutations.

A statistical analysis of the distribution of charged residues in the N-terminal region of 39 prokaryotic and 134 eukaryotic signal sequences reveals a remarkable similarity between the two samples, both in terms of net charge and in terms of the position of charged residues within the N-terminal region, and suggests that the formyl group on Metf is not removed in prokaryotic signal sequences.