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Molecular and Cellular Biology, February 2007, p. 1112-1124, Vol. 27, No. 3
0270-7306/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/MCB.00156-06
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Cell Biology and Metabolism Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development,1 Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 208922
Received 27 January 2006/ Returned for modification 28 February 2006/ Accepted 1 November 2006
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Subsequent to their discovery in yeast, retromer subunit orthologs were found in all metazoans, including mammals (35). There are two orthologs of yeast Vps5p in mammals, namely, the sorting nexins SNX1 and SNX2 (16, 19). These proteins have a relatively unstructured amino-terminal segment followed by a PX domain that binds phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate and other phosphoinositides (8, 12, 44) and a BAR domain that mediates dimerization and binding to highly curved membranes (6, 12, 43) (see scheme in Fig. 1). Yeast Vps17p has a similar domain organization, but there are no closely related homologs in mammals. Yeast Vps26p, Vps29p, and Vps35p all have at least one ortholog in mammals (Fig. 1), with which they share 30 to 42% sequence identity (17, 21). Like yeast Vps35p and Vps26p, the mammalian counterparts display no significant sequence identity with any other protein and no motifs that would provide insight into their functions. The yeast and mammalian Vps35 proteins interact with the cytosolic tails of Vps10p and its functional mammalian homolog, the cation-independent mannose 6-phosphate receptor (CI-MPR), respectively (1, 28); this led to the proposal that they function as the cargo recognition subunits of the corresponding retromer complexes. A recent X-ray crystallographic study has shown that the tertiary structure of Vps26 resembles that of the arrestins, suggesting that, like the arrestins, Vps26 could also participate in cargo recognition (38). Finally, other X-ray crystallographic analyses have shown that mammalian Vps29 has a phosphoesterase fold with a coordination site for two divalent metal cations. This fold is similar to those of a wide variety of prokaryotic and eukaryotic phosphoesterases (11, 42), and indeed, recombinant Vps29 in complex with Vps26 and Vps35 has been shown to have Zn2+-dependent phosphatase activity towards a serine-phosphorylated peptide derived from the cytosolic tail of the CI-MPR (13).
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FIG. 1. Schematic representation of mammalian retromer subunits. The number of amino acids and molecular mass of each protein are indicated. The scheme also indicates the features of the different subunits or their domains.
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Like the pattern of protein interactions, the functions ascribed to retromer subunits are also quite diverse. Recent studies involving suppression of retromer subunit expression by RNA interference or the use of retromer-deficient mammalian cells have shown that Vps26 and Vps35 (1, 34) as well as SNX1 (6), but not SNX2 (8), are required for efficient transport of the CI-MPR from endosomes to the trans-Golgi network (TGN). In the absence of any of these subunits, the CI-MPR is diverted to lysosomes, and lysosomal hydrolases become partially missorted (1, 6, 34). The function of the mammalian retromer inferred from these observations is thus analogous to that of the yeast retromer in vacuolar hydrolase sorting. It contrasts, however, with previous proposals that SNX1 and/or SNX2 enhances the targeting of certain signaling receptors to lysosomes, thereby contributing to their down-regulation (12, 15, 23). The latter function has been called into question for SNX1 (6). Recent studies have uncovered yet another function for the mammalian retromer in the regulation of the transcytosis of the polymeric immunoglobulin receptor from the basolateral to the apical plasma membranes of polarized epithelial cells (41). These findings underscore the possibility that mammalian retromer subunits are part of additional complexes that mediate processes other than endosome-to-TGN retrieval. Thus, from all of these data, it is unclear which subunits are unique and obligate components of the mammalian retromer, whether any of these subunits can exist independently of the others (perhaps as components of other complexes), and how they might be involved in diverse cellular processes.
To address some of these uncertainties, we have undertaken a systematic analysis of the assembly, localization, membrane recruitment, and structural and functional requirements of retromer subunits in mammalian cells. Because many of the uncertainties mentioned above arise from the use of transient overexpression of transgenic proteins, our analysis focused on endogenous retromers. Our results indicate that the mammalian retromer consists of two subcomplexes, i.e., a SNX1/2 homodimer or heterodimer and a Vps26-Vps29-Vps35 heterotrimer. Depletion of either SNX1 or SNX2 still allows for the assembly of the remaining SNX2 or SNX1 into a homodimer and has no obvious effect on the levels or subunit assembly of the Vps26-Vps29-Vps35 subcomplex. Depletion of any of the subunits of the latter subcomplex, on the other hand, reduces the levels of the other Vps subunits but has no effect on the levels or assembly of the SNX1/2 dimers. Both subcomplexes therefore behave as independent entities from a biosynthetic standpoint. However, simultaneous depletion of both SNX1 and SNX2 prevents the association of Vps26-Vps29-Vps35 with endosomal membranes; the reciprocal is not the case, as membrane binding of SNX1/2 is unaffected by depletion of the Vps subunits. Finally, depletion of both SNX1 and SNX2 (though not of the individual proteins) results in lysosomal missorting of the CI-MPR similar to that observed upon depletion of either Vps26 or Vps35. Our observations thus shed light on the assembly of endogenous retromers and demonstrate that SNX1 and SNX2 have redundant but essential roles in retromer association with membranes and CI-MPR retrieval.
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Antibodies.
We used mouse monoclonal antibodies to the following proteins: SNX1 and -2 (BD Biosciences, Franklin Lakes, NJ),
-tubulin (DM1A; Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO), Lamp-2 (H4A3; Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA), transferrin receptor (Zymed, San Francisco, CA), CI-MPR (Serotec, Raleigh, NC), and the hemagglutinin (HA) tag (HA.11; Covance, Princeton, NJ). We also used polyclonal antibodies to the following proteins: SNX9 (rabbit antibodies; gift of L. Traub, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA); CI-MPR (rabbit) (20); Vps29, Vps26, Vps35, SNX1, and SNX2 (rabbit) (17); SNX1 (goat antibodies; Santa Cruz Biotechnology Inc., Santa Cruz, CA); and TGN46 (sheep antibodies; Serotec, Raleigh, NC). Goat or donkey antibodies to mouse, rabbit, and goat conjugated to Alexa 488, Alexa 594 or 546, and Alexa 633, respectively, were purchased from Molecular Probes (Eugene, OR). Goat anti-rabbit immunoglobulin G (IgG) conjugated to fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) and goat anti-sheep and anti-mouse IgG conjugated to Cy5 were purchased from Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories, West Grove, PA, and horseradish peroxidase-conjugated anti-mouse and anti-rabbit IgGs were purchased from Amersham Biosciences, Piscataway, NJ.
Immunoprecipitation. For coprecipitation analysis of endogenous SNX1 and SNX2, using specific monoclonal antibodies, HeLa cells maintained in 100-mm dishes were rinsed twice with ice-cold phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and immediately resuspended in 1 ml lysis buffer (0.5% [vol/vol] Triton X-100, 300 mM NaCl, 50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.4, 5 mM EDTA) supplemented with protease inhibitor cocktail (Roche, Indianapolis, IN). After 30 min of incubation at 4°C, lysates were centrifuged at 16,000 x g for 15 min. The supernatants were then precleared by incubation for 60 min at 4°C with 30 µl protein G-Sepharose beads (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Piscataway, NJ) and centrifugation at 8,000 x g for 5 min. The precleared lysates were subsequently incubated for 2 h at 4°C with 30 µl protein G-Sepharose beads bound to mouse monoclonal antibody to SNX1. Following immunoprecipitation, the beads were washed three times with ice-cold wash buffer (0.1% [wt/vol] Triton X-100, 300 mM NaCl, 50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.4) and once with ice-cold PBS. Washed beads were subjected to sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and immunoblot analysis with a monoclonal antibody to SNX2.
For immunoprecipitation-recapture analyses of all retromer subunits, using polyclonal antibodies, cells were metabolically labeled for 6 h at 37°C with 0.05 mCi of [35S]methionine-cysteine (Express protein label; Dupont-New England, Boston, MA) per ml of methionine-cysteine-free Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium supplemented with 10% dialyzed fetal bovine serum. After being labeled, cells were washed twice with ice-cold PBS, and lysates were prepared and precleared as described above. Immunoprecipitations were carried out by incubating the extracts for 2 h at 4°C with polyclonal antibodies to SNX1 or Vps26 bound to 30 µl protein A-Sepharose beads (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Piscataway, NJ). Subsequently, beads were washed with wash buffer and PBS as described above. Bound proteins were eluted from the beads by treatment for 5 min at 95°C with 0.1 M Tris-HCl, pH 7.4, 1% (wt/vol) SDS, and 10 mM dithiothreitol. The eluted material was diluted 20-fold with lysis buffer supplemented with 10 mM iodoacetamide, centrifuged at 16,000 x g for 15 min, and then subjected to a second round of immunoprecipitation with protein A-Sepharose beads bound with polyclonal antibodies to SNX1, SNX2, Vps26, Vps29, Vps35, and the ß3 subunit of AP-3 as a negative control. After being washed, proteins were subjected to SDS-PAGE, and the 35S-labeled proteins were detected by fluorography.
Yeast two-hybrid assays. The subcloning of cDNAs encoding full-length human Vps26A in pGADT7 and Vps35 in pGBKT7 has been described before (38). EcoRI-SalI fragments encoding human Vps29 (residues 2 to 183) and human SNX2 were subcloned into the EcoRI-XhoI and EcoRI-SalI sites of the pGADT7 and pGBKT7 vectors (Clontech, Mountain View, CA), respectively. A cDNA encoding human SNX1 was cloned into the EcoRI-XhoI sites of pGADT7. S. cerevisiae strain AH-109 (Clontech) was cotransformed by the lithium acetate procedure with plasmids encoding different SNX and Vps retromer subunits, as indicated in the instructions of a Matchmaker two-hybrid kit (Clontech). The liquid ß-galactosidase assay was performed using a commercial kit (Pierce, Woburn, MA). The ß-galactosidase activity shown for each prey-bait cotransformation was the result of subtracting the ß-galactosidase activity of each prey or bait cotransformed with the empty pGADT7 or pGBKT7 vector from the total ß-galactosidase activity.
Preparation of cell lysates, subcellular fractionation, and hydrodynamic analyses. To prepare total cell lysates, cells from two 100-mm dishes were washed, scraped, and collected in ice-cold Tris-buffered saline (TBS), pH 7.4. Cells were then lysed in 1.0 ml of TBS containing 0.5% (wt/vol) Triton X-100 and protease inhibitors by 20 passages through a 25-gauge needle, incubated on ice for 30 min, and then centrifuged at 16,000 x g for 15 min. For subcellular fractionation, cells were homogenized in 1.0 ml TBS-protease inhibitors in the absence of detergent by 20 passages through a 25-gauge needle and then centrifuged at 1,500 x g for 15 min to obtain a postnuclear supernatant fraction. This fraction was subsequently subjected to ultracentrifugation for an additional hour at 125,000 x g to generate cytosolic and membrane fractions.
For gel filtration experiments, both whole-cell lysates and cytosol were first passed through a 0.45-µm filter unit (Millipore, Bedford, MA), and 300 µl of filtered sample was loaded onto a Superdex 200 HR column (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech), equilibrated, and eluted at 4°C with TBS, pH 7.4. Fractions were collected and analyzed by immunoblotting. For sucrose gradient fractionation, 300 µl of whole-cell lysate was layered on top of a linear 2 to 10% (wt/vol) sucrose gradient (total volume, 12 ml) in TBS, pH 7.4. The samples were centrifuged in an SW-41 rotor (Beckman Instruments, Fullerton, CA) at 39,000 rpm for 16 h at 4°C. Fractions were collected from the bottom of the tube and analyzed by immunoblotting. Hydrodynamic parameters were calculated as described previously (26).
Immunofluorescent staining and confocal microscopy. Cells grown on coverslips were rinsed with PBS and fixed for 15 min with 4% (wt/vol) paraformaldehyde in PBS at room temperature. Cells were rinsed twice more with PBS, and excess paraformaldehyde was quenched with PBS containing 20 mM glycine, pH 8.0, and 75 mM NH4Cl for 15 min at room temperature. The cells were again washed with PBS and permeabilized with 0.025% (wt/vol) saponin in blocking solution (PBS containing 5% [vol/vol] goat serum and 7 mg/ml fish skin gelatin) for 10 min at 37°C in a humidified chamber. Cells were immunostained with primary antibodies for 2 h at 37°C, followed by incubation with fluorescently labeled secondary antibodies for 1 h.
In experiments in which cells were treated with wortmannin, cells were washed once and incubated in minimum essential Eagle medium (MEM; Sigma-Aldrich) containing 2.5 g/liter NaHCO3, 20 mM HEPES, pH 7.4, and 0.6% (wt/vol) bovine serum albumin (MEM-BSA) at 37°C for 30 min. Cells were then incubated with dimethyl sulfoxide or 200 nM wortmannin in dimethyl sulfoxide for either 5, 10, or 20 min and then immediately fixed and immunostained with rabbit anti-Vps26 and mouse anti-SNX1 and anti-SNX2, followed by the appropriate secondary antibodies, as described above.
For CI-MPR antibody uptake assays, HeLa cells were rinsed twice with MEM-BSA and then incubated with a mouse monoclonal antibody to the luminal domain of the CI-MPR (described above) in MEM-BSA for 2 h at 37°C. After this incubation, the cells were rinsed, fixed, and immunostained with goat anti-SNX1 and rabbit anti-SNX2 antibodies, followed by the appropriate secondary antibodies, as described above.
Imaging was performed on a TCS SP-2 confocal microscope (Leica, Deerfield, IL) equipped with argon-krypton, 543/594-nm helium-neon, and 633-nm helium-neon lasers. Images were acquired using a x63 Plan-Apochromat oil objective (numerical aperture, 1.4) and the appropriate filter combination. Settings were as follows: photomultipliers were set to 500 to 700 V, the pinhole was set at 1 airy, the zoom setting was 3.0 to 4.0, and a Kalman filter (n = 8) was used. The images (512 by 512 pixels) were saved as TIFF files, contrast was adjusted with Photoshop (Adobe, San Jose, CA), and images were imported into Freehand MX (Macromedia, San Francisco, CA).
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FIG. 2. Coimmunoprecipitation of endogenous retromer subunits. (A and B) HeLa cells metabolically labeled with [35S]methionine-cysteine were lysed with 0.5% (vol/vol) Triton X-100 and immunoprecipitated with rabbit anti-Vps26 (A) or rabbit anti-SNX1 (B). Washed immunoprecipitates were eluted by heating at 95°C for 5 min in the presence of 10 mM dithiothreitol and 1% (wt/vol) SDS and later diluted with lysis buffer. Samples were subjected to recapture with rabbit antibodies to Vps26, Vps29, Vps35, SNX1, SNX2, and the ß3 subunit of the AP-3 complex as a negative control. Washed immunoprecipitates were analyzed by 12% acrylamide SDS-PAGE followed by fluorography. Two different exposure times are shown in panel A to better document the signal corresponding to Vps29 (this protein migrates as a doublet by SDS-PAGE). (C) HeLa cells were lysed with 0.5% (vol/vol) Triton X-100 and immunoprecipitated with (lane 3) or without (lane 2) a monoclonal antibody to SNX1. After being washed, the immunoprecipitates were eluted in sample buffer and analyzed by 4 to 20% acrylamide gradient SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting with a monoclonal antibody to SNX2. Ten percent of the input lysate was loaded in lane 1 as a control. (D) HeLa cells transfected with plasmids encoding Vps26-Myc (lane 1), CFP-SNX1 (lane 2), and HA-SNX2 (lane 3) were lysed and subjected to SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting with monoclonal antibodies to SNX1, SNX2, and HA and a polyclonal antibody to green fluorescent protein (GFP). The positions of molecular mass markers (in kDa) are indicated on the right in panels A to C. Abbreviations: IP, immunoprecipitation; Ab, antibody; IB, immunoblotting; Endo, endogenous; Ig-HC; immunoglobulin heavy chain; Ig-LC, immunoglobulin light chain.
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FIG. 3. Sedimentation velocity analysis of retromer subunits. Triton X-100 extracts of HeLa cells were fractionated by centrifugation in linear 2 to 10% (wt/vol) sucrose gradients as described in Materials and Methods. Samples representing 4% of the volume of each fraction were analyzed by 4 to 20% acrylamide gradient SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting with antibodies to Vps26 (A), Vps29 (B), and SNX1 (D) or jointly with antibodies to Vps35 and SNX2 (C). The positions in the gradient, molecular masses, and sedimentation coefficients of protein standards are indicated at the top.
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FIG. 4. Gel filtration analysis of retromer subunits. Triton X-100 extracts (A) and cytosol (B) from HeLa cells, prepared as indicated in Materials and Methods, were subjected to gel filtration on a calibrated Superdex 200 HR column. Samples representing 2% of the volume of each fraction were analyzed by 4 to 20% acrylamide gradient SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting with antibodies to each of the retromer subunits. The void volume (V0) and the positions, molecular masses, and Stokes radii of standard proteins are indicated at the top.
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FIG. 5. Effects of depleting retromer subunits on the levels and gel filtration behaviors of the other subunits. (A) Triton X-100 extracts from mock-treated cells or cells treated with siRNA to Vps26, Vps29, Vps35, SNX1, SNX2, or SNX1/SNX2 together were subjected to 4 to 20% acrylamide gradient SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting (IB) with antibodies to the indicated proteins. Equal amounts of total protein, as quantified by the bicinchoninic acid assay, were loaded in each lane. (B) Triton X-100 extracts from mock-treated cells or cells treated with siRNA to Vps26 or SNX1 were subjected to gel filtration on a calibrated Superdex 200 HR column. Five percent of the volume of each fraction was analyzed by 4 to 20% acrylamide gradient SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting with a mixture of antibodies to Vps26 and SNX1. The positions, molecular masses, and Stokes radii of standard proteins are indicated at the top. Notice that siRNA depletion of Vps26 did not alter the elution profile of SNX1 (or SNX2 [data not shown]). Similarly, siRNA depletion of SNX1 did not affect the elution properties of Vps26 (or Vps29 and Vps35 [data not shown]).
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FIG. 6. Yeast two-hybrid analysis of interactions between the SNX and Vps subunits of the mammalian retromer. S. cerevisiae strain AH109 was cotransformed with the combinations of SNX and Vps subunits of retromer indicated in the figure. For each pair, the first protein was expressed as a fusion with the Gal4 DNA-binding domain from the pGBKT7 plasmid, while the second protein was expressed as a fusion with the Gal4 transcription activation domain from the pGADT7 plasmid. Minus signs indicate the absence of any retromer subunit in pGBKT7. Interactions were quantified using a liquid ß-galactosidase (ß-Gal) assay. Activity values (in arbitrary units) are the means ± standard deviations for triplicate determinations. The experiment shown in the figure is representative of four experiments that gave similar results.
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FIG. 7. Colocalization of endogenous SNX1, SNX2, and Vps26 in HeLa cells. The intracellular localization of SNX2 (A and D), SNX1 (B and G), and Vps26 (E and H) was assessed in fixed and permeabilized cells by indirect immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy. (A, D, and G) Alexa 488, green channel. (B, E, and H) Alexa 546, red channel. (C, F, and I) Merged images. Yellow indicates colocalization. Examples of foci where proteins colocalize are indicated by arrows.
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FIG. 8. Requirement of SNX1 or SNX2 for association of the Vps26-Vps29-Vps35 subcomplex with endosomal membranes. HeLa cells were treated twice, at 24-h intervals, with an inactive siRNA to Vps35 (mock; A to C) or active siRNA to Vps26 (D to F), SNX1 (G to I), SNX2 (J to L), or SNX1 and SNX2 together (M to O). At 48 h posttreatment, the cellular distributions of Vps26 (A, D, G, J, and M), SNX1 (B, E, H, K, and N), and SNX2 (C, F, I, L, and O) were assessed by indirect immunofluorescence staining using mouse monoclonal antibodies to the corresponding SNX proteins and a rabbit polyclonal antibody to Vps26, followed by FITC-conjugated goat anti-rabbit IgG and Cy5-conjugated goat anti-mouse IgG. Images were captured by confocal microscopy. The same confocal microscope settings were used for imaging of all mock- and siRNA-treated cells.
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FIG. 9. Functional redundancy of SNX1 and SNX2 in sorting of the CI-MPR. (A to F) HeLa cells treated with siRNAs to SNX1 (A and D), SNX2 (B and E), and SNX1 and SNX2 together (C and F) were analyzed by immunofluorescence staining and confocal microscopy. Cells were double stained with rabbit polyclonal antibodies to the corresponding SNX proteins (A to C) and a mouse monoclonal antibody to the CI-MPR (D to F), followed by FITC-conjugated goat anti-rabbit IgG and Cy5-conjugated goat anti-mouse IgG. As internal controls, a minority of cells that did not respond to the siRNA treatment were imaged next to the majority of cells that responded. Arrows point to cells depleted of the indicated SNX protein. (G) Extracts of HeLa cells treated with siRNAs to the proteins indicated at the top were analyzed by 4 to 20% acrylamide gradient SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting (IB) with antibodies to the proteins indicated on the right. Equal amounts of total protein were loaded. Blots were also probed with antibody to -tubulin as a loading control.
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Human retromer consists of SNX1/2 and Vps26-Vps29-Vps35 subcomplexes. Our results show that five putative subunits of the endogenous mammalian retromer occur as components of two independently assembling subcomplexes, SNX1/2 and Vps26-Vps29-Vps35, in both cytosolic and detergent extracts of whole cells. The existence of a stable Vps26-Vps29-Vps35 subcomplex was previously inferred from the association of the recombinant subunits (11). These findings are at variance with the previous proposal that the mammalian retromer exists as a stable five-subunit complex that is recruited from the cytosol to membranes en bloc (17). The two retromer subcomplexes exhibit different biosynthetic relationships among their constituent subunits. SNX1 and SNX2 behave as alternate heterodimers or homodimers. Depletion of one of these proteins does not affect the stability of the other, because the remaining protein can form homodimers. Vps26-Vps29-Vps35, on the other hand, behaves as an obligate heterotrimer, for which depletion of any one subunit results in disappearance of the others. This interdependence of Vps26, Vps29, and Vps35 makes it unlikely that these subunits can exist separately or as components of other complexes, as previously speculated. Diversification of the retromer, however, is possible through the assembly of different subunit isoforms (21).
SNX1/2 homodimers or heterodimers are required for association of the Vps26-Vps29-Vps35 subcomplex with endosomes. The ability to deplete cells of different retromer subunits by using siRNAs allowed us to examine the structural requirements for the associations of both subcomplexes with membranes. The SNX1/2 subcomplex was found to associate with membranes independently of the Vps26-Vps29-Vps35 subcomplex. The converse was not the case, as association of the Vps26-Vps29-Vps35 subcomplex with membranes required the presence of either SNX1 or SNX2. This behavior of mammalian Vps26-Vps29-Vps35 appears distinct from that of yeast Vps26p, which remains associated with membranes in deletion mutants lacking the SNX-like subunit Vps5p or Vps17p (35). Together with previous findings, these observations suggest that SNX1/2 heterodimers or homodimers are recruited from the cytosol to membranes by binding of their PX domains to phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate or other phosphoinositides and of their BAR domains to highly curved membranes (6, 8, 39), through what has been referred to as "coincidence sensing" (6). This recruitment could be regulated by an ortholog of the yeast phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, Vps34p (5), which localizes to endosomes in mammalian cells (39). The extended N-terminal segments of SNX1/2 would then bind cytosolic Vps26-Vps29-Vps35 (demonstrated for SNX1 in reference 15), resulting in the association of this subcomplex with membranes. The interaction between the two subcomplexes must be of low affinity or transient because it could not observed in cytosolic extracts and did not withstand solubilization of cells with Triton X-100. In addition, it could not be demonstrated by pull-down assays (11; our unpublished observations) but could be shown only by yeast two-hybrid assays (17; this study). This suggests that additional interactions might contribute to the stabilization of Vps26-Vps29-Vps35 on membranes. One such interaction could be the binding of the cytosolic tails of cargo proteins to the corresponding cargo recognition subunits. A recent study has also shown an interaction of the GTP-bound form of Rab7 with the Vps26-Vps29-Vps35 subcomplex of Entamoeba histolytica (27). It is therefore likely that binding to SNX1 and SNX2 is just one of several interactions that cooperate to recruit the Vps26-Vps29-Vps35 complex to membranes. In any event, our results indicate that in addition to promoting membrane remodeling and tubulation (6, 8), SNX1 and SNX2 enable association of the cargo recognition Vps26-Vps29-Vps35 subcomplex with membranes.
SNX1 and SNX2 play redundant but essential roles in CI-MPR trafficking. We also found that the presence of either SNX1 or SNX2 was required for proper sorting of the CI-MPR. Depletion of one of these proteins had no detectable effect, but depletion of both resulted in decreased levels and dispersal of the residual CI-MPR, a phenotype that is similar to that caused by depletion of Vps26 or Vps35 (1, 34). This is consistent with the requirement of either SNX1 or SNX2 for the association of Vps26-Vps29-Vps35 with membranes. The reduced level and dispersal of the CI-MPR most likely arise from the inability of the receptor to return from endosomes to the TGN and its consequent missorting to lysosomes, as previously shown for Vps26-depleted cells (1, 34). Carlton et al. (6) showed that depletion of SNX1 alone was sufficient to elicit these effects on CI-MPR, but we found that both SNX1 and SNX2 need to be depleted to observe a clear effect. Carlton et al. (8) also found little observable effect on the steady-state localization of the CI-MPR on SNX2 depletion, although they did find a subtle effect on CI-MPR trafficking in kinetic uptake assays. We do not know the reason for these differences with our findings, but one possible explanation could be the abundance of SNX2 relative to SNX1 in the strains of HeLa cells used by the two groups (HeLaM cells were used for references 6 and 8, and HeLa cells from the ATCC were used in our study).
Concluding remarks. By several criteria, SNX1 and SNX2 behave as interchangeable subunits of the same subcomplex. As far as the retromer is concerned, they essentially behave as variant isoforms of the same protein, which is consistent with their 63% identity at the amino acid level. First, they coassemble, although the absence of one does not affect the stability of the other. Second, they largely colocalize on endosomes and derived tubules. Finally, either SNX1 or SNX2 is sufficient to allow association of Vps26-Vps29-Vps35 with membranes and proper sorting of the CI-MPR. Clearly, other SNX proteins cannot compensate for the loss of SNX1 and SNX2. We cannot rule out, however, that SNX1 and SNX2 are redundant, obligatory components of an as yet unidentified heterodimer with another SNX protein. Since the depletion of Vps26-Vps29-Vps35 has no effect on the association of SNX1/2 with membranes, our results also do not exclude that SNX1 and SNX2 could perform additional functions unrelated to the retromer, as previously shown (12, 15, 23). Our observations are in line with results from gene ablation studies with the mouse. These studies showed that mice lacking SNX1 or SNX2 were viable, whereas mice lacking both proteins died at midgestation (14, 33), a phenotype similar to that caused by ablation of the Vps26 gene (also known as Hß58) (25). This redundant relationship of the SNX1/2 subunits is distinct from that of the two SNX-like subunits of the yeast retromer, i.e., Vps5p (the ortholog of both SNX1 and SNX2) and Vps17p, both of which are essential for function (19). Hence, yeast Vps5p-Vps17p has the characteristics of an obligate heterodimer. Since Vps17p orthologs can only be found in fungi (R. Rojas and J. S. Bonifacino, unpublished observations), it is likely that the mode of interaction and functional requirements of the SNX subunits of the mammalian retromer reported here will be more generally applicable to other eukaryotic organisms.
This work was funded by the intramural program of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Published ahead of print on 13 November 2006. ![]()
Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://mcb.asm.org/. ![]()
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