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Dictyostelium discoideum Sey1 is the single ortholog of mammalian atlastin 1-3 (ATL1-3), which are large homodimeric GTPases mediating homotypic fusion of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) tubules. In this study, we generated a D. discoideum mutant strain lacking the sey1 gene and found that amoebae deleted for sey1 are enlarged, but grow and develop similarly to the parental strain. The ∆sey1 mutant amoebae showed an altered ER architecture, and the tubular ER network was partially disrupted without any major consequences for other organelles or the architecture of the secretory and endocytic pathways. Macropinocytic and phagocytic functions were preserved; however, the mutant amoebae exhibited cumulative defects in lysosomal enzymes exocytosis, intracellular proteolysis, and cell motility, resulting in impaired growth on bacterial lawns. Moreover, ∆sey1 mutant cells showed a constitutive activation of the unfolded protein response pathway (UPR), but they still readily adapted to moderate levels of ER stress, while unable to cope with prolonged stress. In D. discoideum ∆sey1 the formation of the ER-associated compartment harbouring the bacterial pathogen Legionella pneumophila was also impaired. In the mutant amoebae, the ER was less efficiently recruited to the "Legionella-containing vacuole" (LCV), the expansion of the pathogen vacuole was inhibited at early stages of infection and intracellular bacterial growth was reduced. In summary, our study establishes a role of D. discoideum Sey1 in ER architecture, proteolysis, cell motility and intracellular replication of L. pneumophila., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Studies on the ERGIC-53 KKAA signal have revealed a new mechanism for static retention of mammalian proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (Andersson, H., Kappeler, F., Hauri, H. P. (1999): Protein targeting to endoplasmic reticulum by dilysine signals involves direct retention in addition to retrieval. J. Biol. Chem. 274,15080 - 15084). To test if this mechanism was conserved in yeast, the ERGIC-53 KKAA signal was transferred on two different yeast reporter proteins. Making use of a genetic assay, we demonstrate that this signal induces COPI-dependent ER retrieval. ER retention of KKAA-tagged proteins was impaired in yeast mutants affected in COPI subunits. Furthermore, biochemical analysis of post-ER carbohydrate modifications detected on reporter proteins indicated that KKAA-tagged proteins recycle continuously within early compartments of the secretory pathway. Therefore in yeast, the KKAA signal might only function as a classical dilysine ER retrieval signal.

Retrograde transport of proteins from the Golgi to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) has been the subject of some interest in the recent past. Here a new thermosensitive yeast mutant defective in retrieval of dilysine-tagged proteins from the Golgi back to the endoplasmic reticulum was characterized. The ret4-1 mutant also exhibited a selective defect in forward ER-to-Golgi transport of some secreted proteins at the non-permissive temperature. The corresponding RET4 gene was found to encode Glo3p, a GTPase-activating protein (GAP) specific for ADP-ribosylation factor (ARF). In vitro, the Glo3 thermosensitive mutant showed a reduced ARF1-GAP activity. The Glo3 protein belongs to a family of zinc finger proteins that may include additional ARF-GAPs. Gene deletion experiments of other family members showed that only GLO3 deletion resulted in impaired retrieval of dilysine-tagged proteins back to the ER. These results demonstrate that Glo3p is the main ARF-GAP specifically involved in ER retrieval.

COPII proteins are necessary to generate secretory vesicles at the endoplasmic reticulum. In yeast, the Sec24p protein is the only COPII component in which two close orthologues have been identified. By using gene knock-out in yeast, we found that the absence of one of these Sec24 orthologues resulted in a selective secretion defect for a subset of proteins released into the medium. Data base searches revealed the existence of an entire family of Sec24-related proteins in humans, worms, flies, and plants. We identified and cloned two new human cDNAs encoding proteins homologous to yeast Sec24p, in addition to two human cDNAs already present within the data bases. The entire Sec24 family identified to date is characterized by clusters of highly conserved residues within the 2/3 carboxyl-terminal domain of all the proteins and a divergent amino terminus domain. Human (h) Sec24 orthologues co-immunoprecipitate with hSec23Ap and migrate as a complex by size exclusion chromatography. Immunofluorescence microscopy confirmed that these proteins co-localize with hSec23p and hSec13p. Together, our data suggest that in addition to its role in the shaping up of the vesicle, the Sec23-24p complex may be implicated in cargo selection and concentration.

The transmembrane domains (TMDs) of many type I integral membrane proteins contain determinants that cause localization in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in mammalian cells by an unknown mechanism. Here we show that the yeast ER localization machinery recognizes determinants in TMDs that are very similar to those identified previously in mammalian cells. These determinants are recognized in post-ER compartments and recycled back to the ER, thus acting as ER retrieval signals. Moreover determinants in TMDs are inefficiently sorted in several previously characterized yeast mutants with defects in the ER retrieval machinery. Similar ER retrieval signals are also recognized in the TMDs of polytopic integral membrane proteins, apparently by the same sorting machinery. The isolation of new mutants defective in sorting of membrane determinants might provide a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in this process.

Coatomer-mediated sorting of proteins is based on the physical interaction between coatomer (COP1) and targeting motifs found in the cytoplasmic domains of membrane proteins. For example, binding of COP1 to dilysine (KKXX) motifs induces specific retrieval of tagged proteins from the Golgi back to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Making use of the two-hybrid system, we characterized a new sequence (deltaL) which interacts specifically with the delta-COP subunit of the COP1 complex. Transfer of deltaL to the cytoplasmic domain of a reporter membrane protein resulted in its localization in the ER, in yeast and mammalian cells. This was due to continuous retrieval of tagged proteins from the Golgi back to the ER, in a manner similar to the ER retrieval of KKXX-tagged proteins. Extensive mutagenesis of deltaL identified an aromatic residue as a critical determinant of the interaction with COP1. Similar COP1-binding motifs containing an essential aromatic residue were identified in the cytoplasmic domain of an ER-resident protein, Sec71p, and in an ER retention motif previously characterized in the CD3epsilon chain of the T-cell receptor. These results emphasize the role of the COP1 complex in retrograde Golgi-to-ER transport and highlight its functional similarity with clathrin-adaptor complexes.

Coatomer-coated vesicles have been proposed to play a role in many distinct steps of intracellular transport. Coatomer potentially plays a role in forward transport from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi apparatus and through the Golgi apparatus. It may also function in retrograde transport and in the endocytic pathway. There are limitations to the various approaches used to study the role of coatomer, and looking at these helps us to better define the questions that remain to be answered.

Sec20p and Tip20p were previously identified as two interacting proteins involved in early steps of the secretory pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Here we describe a novel temperature-sensitive allele of TIP20 and analyze its phenotype. While sec20 and tip20 mutants exhibited a defect in forward ER-to-Golgi transport at the non-permissive temperature, both were also defective for retrieval of various dilysine-tagged proteins from the Golgi back to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) at lower temperature. Dilysine-dependent Golgi localization of Emp47p was also defective in both mutants. These results suggest a role for the Sec20/Tip20p complex in retrieval of dilysine-tagged proteins back to the ER.

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells lacking the Rer1 protein (Rer1p), the type II transmembrane protein Sec12p fails to be retained in the ER. The transmembrane domain of Sec12p is sufficient to confer Rer1p-dependent ER retention to other membrane proteins. In rer1 mutants a large part of the Sec12-derived proteins can escape to the late Golgi. In contrast, rer3 mutants accumulate Sec12-derived hybrid proteins carrying early Golgi modifications. We found that rer3 mutants harbour unique alleles of the alpha-COP-encoding RET1 gene. ret1 mutants, along with other coatomer mutants, fail to retrieve KKXX-tagged type I transmembrane proteins from the Golgi back to the ER. Surprisingly rer3-11(=ret1-12) mutants do not affect this kind of ER recycling. Pulse-chase experiments using these mutants show that alpha-COP and Rer1p function together in a very early Golgi compartment to initiate the recycling of Sec12p-derived hybrid proteins. Rer1p protein may be directly involved in the retrieval process since it also recycles between the early Golgi and ER in a coatomer (COPI)-dependent manner. Rer1p may act as an adapter coupling the recycling of non-KKXX transmembrane proteins like Sec12p to the coatomer (COPI)-mediated backward traffic.

Two new thermosensitive yeast mutants defective in retrieval of dilysine-tagged proteins from the Golgi back to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) were characterized. While both ret2-1 and ret3-1 were defective for ER retrieval, only ret2-1 exhibited a defect in forward ER-to-Golgi transport at the non-permissive temperature. Coatomer (COPI) from both mutants could efficiently bind dilysine motifs in vitro. The corresponding RET2 and RET3 genes were cloned by complementation and found of encode the delta and zeta subunits of coatomer respectively. Both proteins show significant homology to clathrin adaptor subunits. These results emphasize the role of coatomer in retrieval of dilysine-tagged proteins back to the ER, and the similarity between clathrin and coatomer coats.

Signals that can cause retention in the ER have been found in the cytoplasmic domain of individual subunits of multimeric receptors destined to the cell surface. To study how ER retention motifs are masked during assembly of oligomeric receptors, we analyzed the assembly and intracellular transport of the human high-affinity receptor for immunoglobulin E expressed in COS cells. The cytoplasmic domain of the alpha chain contains a dilysine ER retention signal, which becomes nonfunctional after assembly with the gamma chain, allowing transport out of the ER of the fully assembled receptor. Juxtaposition of the cytoplasmic domains of the alpha and gamma subunits during assembly is responsible for this loss of ER retention. Substitution of the gamma chain cytoplasmic domain with cytoplasmic domains of irrelevant proteins resulted in efficient transport out of the ER of the alpha chain, demonstrating that nonspecific steric hindrance by the cytoplasmic domain of the gamma chain accounts for the masking of the ER retention signal present in the cytoplasmic domain of the alpha chain. Such a mechanism allows the ER retention machinery to discriminate between assembled and nonassembled receptors, and thus participates in quality control at the level of the ER.

Dilysine motifs in cytoplasmic domains of transmembrane proteins are signals for their continuous retrieval from the Golgi back to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). We describe a system to assess retrieval to the ER in yeast cells making use of a dilysine-tagged Ste2 protein. Whereas retrieval was unaffected in most sec mutants tested (sec7, sec12, sec13, sec16, sec17, sec18, sec19, sec22, and sec23), a defect in retrieval was observed in previously characterized coatomer mutants (sec21-1, sec27-1), as well as in newly isolated retrieval mutants (sec21-2, ret1-1). RET1 was cloned by complementation and found to encode the alpha subunit of coatomer. While temperature-sensitive for growth, the newly isolated coatomer mutants exhibited a very modest defect in secretion at the nonpermissive temperature. Coatomer from beta'-COP (sec27-1) and alpha-COP (ret1-1) mutants, but not from gamma-COP (sec21) mutants, had lost the ability to bind dilysine motifs in vitro. Together, these results suggest that coatomer plays an essential role in retrograde Golgi-to-ER transport and retrieval of dilysine-tagged proteins back to the ER.

Although signals for retention in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) have been identified in the cytoplasmic domain of various ER-resident type I transmembrane proteins, the mechanisms responsible for ER retention are still unknown. Yeast and mammalian ER retention motifs interacted specifically in cell lysates with the coatomer, a polypeptide complex implicated in membrane traffic. Mutations that affect the ER retention capacity of the motifs also abolished binding of the coatomer. These results suggest a role for the coatomer in the retrieval of transmembrane proteins to the ER in both yeast and mammals.