Vacuolar Protein Sorting Machinery Research Articles

Vps4 and the ESCRT-III complex are required for the release of infectious hepatitis C virus particles.

The mechanisms by which infectious hepatitis C virus (HCV) particles are assembled and released from infected cells remain poorly characterized. In this regard, many other enveloped viruses, notably human immunodeficiency virus type 1, have been shown to utilize the host vacuolar protein sorting machinery (also known as the endosomal sorting complex required for transport; ESCRT) to traffic through the cell and effect the membrane rearrangements required for the formation of enveloped particles. We postulated that this might also apply to HCV. To test this hypothesis, we established a method of conditional virus-like particle assembly involving trans-complementation of an envelope-deleted JFH-1 genome using plasmid transfection. This system reliably produced virus particles that were infectious and could be enumerated easily by focus-forming assay in Huh7 cells. Following co-transfection with plasmids expressing various dominant-negative forms of either components of the ESCRT-III complex or Vps4 (the AAA ATPase that recycles the ESCRT complexes), a reduction in particle production was seen. No significant effect was observed after co-transfection of dominant-negative ESCRT-I or Alix, an ESCRT associated protein. Dominant-negative Vps4 or ESCRT-III components had no effect on either virus genome replication or the accumulation of intracellular infectious particles. These data were confirmed using cell culture infectious HCV and we conclude that HCV requires late components of the ESCRT pathway for release of infectious virus particles.

Genome-Wide Identification of S accharomyces cerevisiae Genes Required for Maximal Tolerance to Ethanol

The understanding of the molecular basis of yeast resistance to ethanol may guide the design of rational strategies to increase process performance in industrial alcoholic fermentations. In this study, the yeast disruptome was screened for mutants with differential susceptibility to stress induced by high ethanol concentrations in minimal growth medium. Over 250 determinants of resistance to ethanol were identified. The most significant gene ontology terms enriched in this data set are those associated with intracellular organization, biogenesis, and transport, in particular, regarding the vacuole, the peroxisome, the endosome, and the cytoskeleton, and those associated with the transcriptional machinery. Clustering the proteins encoded by the identified determinants of ethanol resistance by their known physical and genetic interactions highlighted the importance of the vacuolar protein sorting machinery, the vacuolar H(+)-ATPase complex, and the peroxisome protein import machinery. Evidence showing that vacuolar acidification and increased resistance to the cell wall lytic enzyme beta-glucanase occur in response to ethanol-induced stress was obtained. Based on the genome-wide results, the particular role of the FPS1 gene, encoding a plasma membrane aquaglyceroporin which mediates controlled glycerol efflux, in ethanol stress resistance was further investigated. FPS1 expression contributes to decreased [(3)H]ethanol accumulation in yeast cells, suggesting that Fps1p may also play a role in maintaining the intracellular ethanol level during active fermentation. The increased expression of FPS1 confirmed the important role of this gene in alcoholic fermentation, leading to increased final ethanol concentration under conditions that lead to high ethanol production.

Subviral Particle Release Determinants of Prototype Foamy Virus

Glycoproteins of several viruses have the capacity to induce release of noninfectious, capsidless particulate structures containing only the viral glycoprotein. Such structures are often called subviral particles (SVP). Foamy viruses (FVs), a special type of retroviruses with a replication strategy combining features of both orthoretroviruses and hepadnaviruses, express a glycoprotein (Env) which has the ability to induce SVP release. However, unlike human hepatitis B virus, prototype FV (PFV) naturally secretes only small amounts of SVPs, because ubiquitination of the Env protein seems to suppress the intrinsic capacity for induction of SVP release. In this study, we characterized the structural determinants influencing PFV SVP release, examined the role of specific Env ubiquitination sites in the regulation of this process, and analyzed the requirement of the cellular vacuolar protein sorting (VPS) machinery for SVP egress. We observed that the cytoplasmic and membrane-spanning domains of both the leader peptide (LP) and the transmembrane (TM) subunit harbor essential as well as inhibitory domains. Furthermore, only ubiquitination at the most N-terminal lysine residues (K(14) and K(15)) in LP reduced cell surface expression and suppressed SVP release to wild-type levels. This suggests that interaction of Env with cellular components required for SVP release suppression is effective only when Env is ubiquitinated at these lysine residues but not at others. Finally, SVP release was sensitive to dominant-negative mutants of late components, but not early components, of the cellular VPS machinery. PFV therefore differs from hepatitis B virus in using the same cellular pathway for egress of both virions and SVPs.

Ubiquitin-dependent virus particle budding without viral protein ubiquitination

An essential step in the release of an extracellular enveloped virus particle is a budding event that ultimately separates virion and host cell membranes. For many enveloped viruses, membrane fission requires the recruitment of the class E vacuolar protein sorting (VPS) machinery by short, virally encoded peptide sequences termed "late-budding" or "L" domains. Some L-domain peptide sequences (e.g., PSAP) bind directly to components of class E VPS machinery, whereas others (e.g., PPxY) access it indirectly by recruiting ubiquitin ligases. Additionally, ubiquitin itself is known to be generally important for the fission of virion from cellular membranes, and because ubiquitination of cellular transmembrane proteins can signal the recruitment of class E machinery, a popular model is that deposition of ubiquitin on viral structural proteins mediates class E machinery recruitment. To test this model, we took advantage of a retroviral Gag protein from the prototypic foamy virus (PFV) that is almost devoid of ubiquitin acceptors, and we engineered it to generate extracellular virus-like particles in the complete absence of other viral proteins. Notably, we found that particle budding, induced by a class E VPS machinery-binding L domain (PSAP), proceeded efficiently in the absence of ubiquitin acceptors in PFV Gag. Moreover, when particle release was engineered to be dependent on a viral PPXY motif, the requirement for a catalytically active ubiquitin ligase was maintained, irrespective of the presence or absence of ubiquitin acceptor sites in PFV Gag. Thus, in this model system, ubiquitin conjugation to transacting factors, not viral proteins, appears critical for ubiquitin-dependent enveloped viral particle release.

Structural Basis for Budding by the ESCRT-III Factor CHMP3

The vacuolar protein sorting machinery regulates multivesicular body biogenesis and is selectively recruited by enveloped viruses to support budding. Here we report the crystal structure of the human ESCRT-III protein CHMP3 at 2.8 A resolution. The core structure of CHMP3 folds into a flat helical arrangement that assembles into a lattice, mainly via two different dimerization modes, and unilaterally exposes a highly basic surface. The C terminus, the target for Vps4-induced ESCRT disassembly, extends from the opposite side of the membrane targeting region. Mutations within the basic and dimerization regions hinder bilayer interaction in vivo and reverse the dominant-negative effect of a truncated CHMP3 fusion protein on HIV-1 budding. Thus, the final steps in the budding process may include CHMP protein polymerization and lattice formation on membranes by employing different bilayer-recognizing surfaces, a function shared by all CHMP family members.

Intracellular assembly and budding of the Murine Leukemia Virus in infected cells

BackgroundMurine Leukemia Virus (MLV) assembly has been long thought to occur exclusively at the plasma membrane. Current models of retroviral particle assembly describe the recruitment of the host vacuolar protein sorting machinery to the cell surface to induce the budding of new particles. Previous fluorescence microscopy study reported the vesicular traffic of the MLV components (Gag, Env and RNA). Here, electron microscopy (EM) associated with immunolabeling approaches were used to go deeply into the assembly of the "prototypic" MLV in chronically infected NIH3T3 cells.ResultsBeside the virus budding events seen at the cell surface of infected cells, we observed that intracellular budding events could also occur inside the intracellular vacuoles in which many VLPs accumulated. EM in situ hybridization and immunolabeling analyses confirmed that these latter were MLV particles. Similar intracellular particles were detected in cells expressing MLV Gag alone. Compartments containing the MLV particles were identified as late endosomes using Lamp1 endosomal/lysosomal marker and BSA-gold pulse-chase experiments. In addition, infectious activity was detected in lysates of infected cells.ConclusionAltogether, our results showed that assembly of MLV could occur in part in intracellular compartments of infected murine cells and participate in the production of infectious viruses. These observations suggested that MLV budding could present similarities with the particular intracellular budding of HIV in infected macrophages.

Role of Mammalian Vacuolar Protein-sorting Proteins in Endocytic Trafficking of a Non-ubiquitinated G Protein-coupled Receptor to Lysosomes

Many signaling receptors require covalent modification by ubiquitin for agonist-induced down-regulation via endocytic trafficking to lysosomes, a process that is mediated by a conserved set of endosome-associating proteins also required for vacuolar protein-sorting (VPS) in yeast. The delta opioid receptor (DOR) is a G protein-coupled receptor that can undergo agonist-induced proteolysis via endocytic trafficking to lysosomes but does not require covalent modification by ubiquitin to do so. This raises the question of whether lysosomal down-regulation of this "ubiquitination-independent" GPCR is mediated by a completely distinct biochemical mechanism or if similar VPS machinery is involved. Agonist-induced proteolysis of DOR was significantly inhibited by dominant negative mutant versions of Vps4/Skd1, an AAA-family ATPase required for a late step in lysosomal sorting of ubiquitinated membrane cargo. Furthermore, overexpression and interfering RNA-mediated knockdown indicated that lysosomal trafficking of opioid receptors is also dependent on Hrs, a VPS protein that mediates an early step in lysosomal sorting of ubiquitinated cargo. However, interfering RNA-mediated knockdown of Tsg101, a VPS protein that is essential for an intermediate step of the conserved lysosomal sorting mechanism, did not detectably affect agonist-induced proteolysis of DOR in the same cells in which (ubiquitination-dependent) lysosomal trafficking of epidermal growth factor receptors was clearly inhibited. These results indicate that opioid receptors, despite their ability to undergo efficient agonist-induced trafficking to lysosomes in the absence of covalent modification by ubiquitin, utilize some (Vps4 and Hrs) but perhaps not all (Tsg101) of the VPS machinery required for lysosomal sorting of ubiquitinated membrane cargo.

Structural studies on the Ebola virus matrix protein VP40 indicate that matrix proteins of enveloped RNA viruses are analogues but not homologues

Matrix proteins are the driving force of assembly of enveloped viruses. Their main function is to interact with and polymerize at cellular membranes and link other viral components to the matrix–membrane complex resulting in individual particle shapes and ensuring the integrity of the viral particle. Although matrix proteins of different virus families show functional analogy, they share no sequence or structural homology. Their diversity is also evident in that they use a variety of late domain motifs to commit the cellular vacuolar protein sorting machinery to virus budding. Here, we discuss the structural and functional aspects of the filovirus matrix protein VP40 and compare them to other known matrix protein structures from vesicular stomatitis virus, influenza virus and retroviral matrix proteins.

Structural studies on the Ebola virus matrix protein VP40 indicate that matrix proteins of enveloped RNA viruses are analogues but not homologues

Matrix proteins are the driving force of assembly of enveloped viruses. Their main function is to interact with and polymerize at cellular membranes and link other viral components to the matrix–membrane complex resulting in individual particle shapes and ensuring the integrity of the viral particle. Although matrix proteins of different virus families show functional analogy, they share no sequence or structural homology. Their diversity is also evident in that they use a variety of late domain motifs to commit the cellular vacuolar protein sorting machinery to virus budding. Here, we discuss the structural and functional aspects of the filovirus matrix protein VP40 and compare them to other known matrix protein structures from vesicular stomatitis virus, influenza virus and retroviral matrix proteins.

The small RING finger protein Z drives arenavirus budding: implications for antiviral strategies.

By using a reverse genetics system that is based on the prototypic arenavirus lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV), we have identified the arenavirus small RING finger Z protein as the main driving force of virus budding. Both LCMV and Lassa fever virus (LFV) Z proteins exhibited self-budding activity, and both substituted efficiently for the late domain that is present in the Gag protein of Rous sarcoma virus. LCMV and LFV Z proteins contain proline-rich motifs that are characteristic of late domains. Mutations in the PPPY motif of LCMV Z severely impaired the formation of virus-like particles. LFV Z contains two different proline-rich motifs, PPPY and PTAP, which are separated by eight amino acids. Mutational analysis revealed that both motifs are required for efficient LFV Z-mediated budding. Both LCMV and LFV Z proteins recruited to the plasma membrane Tsg101, which is a component of the class E vacuolar protein sorting machinery that has been implicated in budding of HIV and Ebola virus. Targeting of Tsg101 by RNA interference caused a strong reduction in Z-mediated budding. These results indicate that Z is the arenavirus functional counterpart of the matrix proteins found in other negative strand enveloped RNA viruses. Moreover, members of the vacuolar protein sorting pathway appear to play an important role in arena-virus budding. These findings open possibilities for antiviral strategies to combat LFV and other hemorrhagic fever arenaviruses.

Divergent retroviral late-budding domains recruit vacuolar protein sorting factors by using alternative adaptor proteins.

The release of enveloped viruses from infected cells often requires a virally encoded activity, termed a late-budding domain (L domain), encoded by essential PTAP, PPXY, or YPDL sequence motifs. PTAP-type L domains recruit one of three endosomal sorting complexes required for transport (ESCRT-I). However, subsequent events in viral budding are poorly defined, and neither YPDL nor PPXY-type L domains require ESCRT-I. Here, we show that ESCRT-I and other class E vacuolar protein sorting (VPS) factors are linked by a complex series of protein-protein interactions. In particular, interactions between ESCRT-I and ESCRT-III are bridged by AIP-1/ALIX, a mammalian orthologue of the yeast class E VPS factor, Bro1. Expression of certain ESCRT-III components as fusion proteins induces a late budding defect that afflicts all three L-domain types, suggesting that ESCRT-III integrity is required in a general manner. Notably, the prototype YPDL-type L domain encoded by equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) acts by recruiting AIP-1/ALIX and expression of a truncated form of AIP-1/ALIX or small interfering RNA-induced AIP-1/ALIX depletion specifically inhibits EIAV YPDL-type L-domain function. Overall, these findings indicate that L domains subvert a subset of class E VPS factors to mediate viral budding, some of which are required for each of the L-domain types, whereas others apparently act as adaptors to physically link specific L-domain types to the class E VPS machinery.

Equine infectious anemia virus utilizes host vesicular protein sorting machinery during particle release.

A final step in retrovirus assembly, particle release from the cell, is modulated by a small motif in the Gag protein known as a late domain. Recently, human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and Moloney murine leukemia virus (M-MuLV) were shown to require components of the cellular vacuolar protein sorting (VPS) machinery for efficient viral release. HIV-1 interacts with the VPS pathway via an association of HIV-1 Gag with TSG101, a component of the cellular complexes involved in VPS. Equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) is unique among enveloped viruses studied to date because it utilizes a novel motif, YPDL in Gag, as a late domain. Our analysis of EIAV assembly demonstrates that EIAV Gag release is blocked by inhibition of the VPS pathway. However, in contrast to HIV-1, EIAV Gag release is insensitive to TSG101 depletion and EIAV particles do not contain significant levels of TSG101. Finally, we demonstrate that fusing EIAV Gag directly with another cellular component of the VPS machinery, VPS28, can restore efficient release of an EIAV Gag late-domain mutant. These results provide evidence that retroviruses can interact with the cellular VPS machinery in several different ways to accomplish particle release.

Colocalization of Barley Lectin and Sporamin in Vacuoles of Transgenic Tobacco Plants

Various targeting motifs have been identified for plant proteins delivered to the vacuole. For barley (Hordeum vulgare) lectin, a typical Gramineae lectin and defense-related protein, the vacuolar information is contained in a carboxyl-terminal propeptide. In contrast, the vacuolar targeting information of sporamin, a storage protein from the tuberous roots of the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), is encoded in an amino-terminal propeptide. Both proteins were expressed simultaneously in transgenic tobacco plants to enable analysis of their posttranslational processing and subcellular localization by pulse-chase labeling and electron-microscopic immunocytochemical methods. The pulse-chase experiments demonstrated that processing and delivery to the vacuole are not impaired by the simultaneous expression of barley lectin and sporamin. Both proteins were targeted quantitatively to the vacuole, indicating that the carboxyl-terminal and amino-terminal propeptides are equally recognized by the vacuolar protein-sorting machinery. Double-labeling experiments showed that barley lectin and sporamin accumulate in the same vacuole of transgenic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) leaf and root cells.