COPI mediates recycling of an exocytic SNARE by recognition of a ubiquitin sorting signal

Abstract

The COPI coat forms transport vesicles from the Golgi complex and plays a poorly defined role in endocytic trafficking. Here we show that COPI binds K63-linked polyubiquitin and this interaction is crucial for trafficking of a ubiquitinated yeast SNARE (Snc1). Snc1 is a v-SNARE that drives fusion of exocytic vesicles with the plasma membrane, and then recycles through the endocytic pathway to the Golgi for reuse in exocytosis. Removal of ubiquitin from Snc1, or deletion of a β'-COP subunit propeller domain that binds K63-linked polyubiquitin, disrupts Snc1 recycling causing aberrant accumulation in internal compartments. Moreover, replacement of the β'-COP propeller domain with unrelated ubiquitin-binding domains restores Snc1 recycling. These results indicate that ubiquitination, a modification well known to target membrane proteins to the lysosome or vacuole for degradation, can also function as recycling signal to sort a SNARE into COPI vesicles in a non-degradative pathway.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Peng Xu

    Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Hannah M Hankins

    Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Chris MacDonald

    Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Samuel J Erlinger

    Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-8347-2617
  5. Meredith N Frazier

    Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  6. Nicholas S Diab

    Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  7. Robert C Piper

    Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Lauren P Jackson

    Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-3705-6126
  9. Jason A MacGurn

    Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5063-259X
  10. Todd R Graham

    Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States
    For correspondence
    tr.graham@vanderbilt.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-3256-2126

Funding

National Institutes of Health (5R01GM118452)

  • Todd R Graham

Pew Charitable Trusts

  • Lauren P Jackson

National Institutes of Health (5R01GM058202)

  • Robert C Piper

National Institutes of Health (1R35GM119525)

  • Lauren P Jackson

National Institutes of Health (1R01GM118491)

  • Jason A MacGurn

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Margaret S. Robinson, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Version history

  1. Received: May 4, 2017
  2. Accepted: October 22, 2017
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: October 23, 2017 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: October 31, 2017 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2017, Xu et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 3,810
    views
  • 657
    downloads
  • 54
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Peng Xu
  2. Hannah M Hankins
  3. Chris MacDonald
  4. Samuel J Erlinger
  5. Meredith N Frazier
  6. Nicholas S Diab
  7. Robert C Piper
  8. Lauren P Jackson
  9. Jason A MacGurn
  10. Todd R Graham
(2017)
COPI mediates recycling of an exocytic SNARE by recognition of a ubiquitin sorting signal
eLife 6:e28342.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.28342

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.28342

Further reading

    1. Cell Biology
    2. Developmental Biology
    Corey D Holman, Alexander P Sakers ... Patrick Seale
    Research Article

    The energy-burning capability of beige adipose tissue is a potential therapeutic tool for reducing obesity and metabolic disease, but this capacity is decreased by aging. Here, we evaluate the impact of aging on the profile and activity of adipocyte stem and progenitor cells (ASPCs) and adipocytes during the beiging process in mice. We found that aging increases the expression of Cd9 and other fibro-inflammatory genes in fibroblastic ASPCs and blocks their differentiation into beige adipocytes. Fibroblastic ASPC populations from young and aged mice were equally competent for beige differentiation in vitro, suggesting that environmental factors suppress adipogenesis in vivo. Examination of adipocytes by single nucleus RNA-sequencing identified compositional and transcriptional differences in adipocyte populations with aging and cold exposure. Notably, cold exposure induced an adipocyte population expressing high levels of de novo lipogenesis (DNL) genes, and this response was severely blunted in aged animals. We further identified Npr3, which encodes the natriuretic peptide clearance receptor, as a marker gene for a subset of white adipocytes and an aging-upregulated gene in adipocytes. In summary, this study indicates that aging blocks beige adipogenesis and dysregulates adipocyte responses to cold exposure and provides a resource for identifying cold and aging-regulated pathways in adipose tissue.

    1. Cell Biology
    Tongtong Ma, Ruimin Ren ... Heng Wang
    Research Article

    Current studies on cultured meat mainly focus on the muscle tissue reconstruction in vitro, but lack the formation of intramuscular fat, which is a crucial factor in determining taste, texture, and nutritional contents. Therefore, incorporating fat into cultured meat is of superior value. In this study, we employed the myogenic/lipogenic transdifferentiation of chicken fibroblasts in 3D to produce muscle mass and deposit fat into the same cells without the co-culture or mixture of different cells or fat substances. The immortalized chicken embryonic fibroblasts were implanted into the hydrogel scaffold, and the cell proliferation and myogenic transdifferentiation were conducted in 3D to produce the whole-cut meat mimics. Compared to 2D, cells grown in 3D matrix showed elevated myogenesis and collagen production. We further induced fat deposition in the transdifferentiated muscle cells and the triglyceride content could be manipulated to match and exceed the levels of chicken meat. The gene expression analysis indicated that both lineage-specific and multifunctional signalings could contribute to the generation of muscle/fat matrix. Overall, we were able to precisely modulate muscle, fat, and extracellular matrix contents according to balanced or specialized meat preferences. These findings provide new avenues for customized cultured meat production with desired intramuscular fat contents that can be tailored to meet the diverse demands of consumers.