scholarly journals Protein p38: an integral membrane protein specific for small vesicles of neurons and neuroendocrine cells.

1986 ◽  
Vol 103 (6) ◽  
pp. 2511-2527 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Navone ◽  
R Jahn ◽  
G Di Gioia ◽  
H Stukenbrok ◽  
P Greengard ◽  
...  

An intrinsic membrane protein of brain synaptic vesicles with Mr 38,000 (p38, synaptophysin) has recently been partially characterized (Jahn, R., W. Schiebler, C. Ouimet, and P. Greengard, 1985, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 83:4137-4141; Wiedenmann, B., and W. W. Franke, 1985, Cell, 41:1017-1028). We have now studied the presence of p38 in a variety of tissues by light and electron microscopy immunocytochemistry and by immunochemistry. Our results indicate that, within the nervous system, p38, like the neuron-specific phosphoprotein synapsin I, is present in virtually all nerve terminals and is selectively associated with small synaptic vesicles (SSVs). No p38 was detectable on large dense-core vesicles (LDCVs). p38 and synapsin I were found to be present in similar concentrations throughout the brain. Outside the nervous system, p38 was found in a variety of neuroendocrine cells, but not in any other cell type. In neuroendocrine cells p38 was localized on a pleiomorphic population of small, smooth-surfaced vesicles, which were interspersed among secretory granules and concentrated in the Golgi area, but not on the secretory granules themselves. Immunoblot analysis of endocrine tissues and cell lines revealed a band with a mobility slightly different from that of neuronal p38. This difference was attributable to a difference in glycosylation. The finding that p38, like synapsin I, is a component of SSVs of virtually all neurons, but not of LDCVs, supports the idea that SSVs and LDCVs are organelles of two distinct pathways for regulated neuronal secretion. In addition, our results indicate the presence in a variety of neuroendocrine cells of an endomembrane system, which is related to SSVs of neurons but is distinct from secretory granules.

1990 ◽  
Vol 110 (4) ◽  
pp. 1285-1294 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Baumert ◽  
K Takei ◽  
J Hartinger ◽  
P M Burger ◽  
G Fischer von Mollard ◽  
...  

A novel membrane protein from rat brain synaptic vesicles with an apparent 29,000 Mr (p29) was characterized. Using monospecific polyclonal antibodies, the distribution of p29 was studied in a variety of tissues by light and electron microscopy and immunoblot analysis. Within the nervous system, p29 was present in virtually all nerve terminals. It was selectively associated with small synaptic vesicles and a perinuclear region corresponding to the area of the Golgi complex. P29 was not detected in any other subcellular organelles including large dense-core vesicles. The distribution of p29 in various subcellular fractions from rat brain was very similar to that of synaptophysin and synaptobrevin. The highest enrichment occurred in purified small synaptic vesicles. Outside the nervous system, p29 was found only in endocrine cell types specialized for peptide hormone secretion. In these cells, p29 had a distribution very similar to that of synaptophysin. It was associated with microvesicles of heterogeneous size and shape that are primarily concentrated in the centrosomal-Golgi complex area. Secretory granules were mostly unlabeled, but their membrane occasionally contained small labeled evaginations. Immunoisolation of subcellular organelles from undifferentiated PC12 cells with antisynaptophysin antibodies led to a concomitant enrichment of p29, synaptobrevin, and synaptophysin, further supporting a colocalization of all three proteins. P29 has an isoelectric point of approximately 5.0 and is not N-glycosylated. It is an integral membrane protein and all antibody binding sites are exposed on the cytoplasmic side of the vesicles. Two monoclonal antibodies raised against p29 cross reacted with synaptophysin, indicating the presence of related epitopes. P29, like synaptophysin, was phosphorylated on tyrosine residues by endogenous tyrosine kinase activity in intact vesicles.


1998 ◽  
Vol 140 (3) ◽  
pp. 685-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chung-Jiuan Jeng ◽  
Steven A. McCarroll ◽  
Thomas F. J. Martin ◽  
Erik Floor ◽  
James Adams ◽  
...  

Thy-1, a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-linked integral membrane protein of the immunoglobulin superfamily, is a component of both large dense-core and small clear vesicles in PC12 cells. A majority of this protein, formerly recognized only on the plasma membrane of neurons, is localized to regulated secretory vesicles. Thy-1 is also present in synaptic vesicles in rat central nervous system. Experiments on permeabilized PC12 cells demonstrate that antibodies against Thy-1 inhibit the regulated release of neurotransmitter; this inhibition appears to be independent of any effect on the Ca2+ channel. These findings suggest Thy-1 is an integral component of many types of regulated secretory vesicles, and plays an important role in the regulated vesicular release of neurotransmitter at the synapse.


1999 ◽  
Vol 341 (3) ◽  
pp. 563-569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina WASMEIER ◽  
John C. HUTTON

Phogrin, a 60/64 kDa integral membrane protein localized to dense-core secretory granules of neuroendocrine cells, was found to be reversibly phosphorylated in intact pancreatic β-cells. Phosphorylation occurred in response to a variety of secretory stimuli, including glucose and depolarizing concentrations of K+. In MIN6 cells, the glucose dose-response and time course of phogrin phosphorylation paralleled that of insulin secretion. Like secretion, glucose- or K+-stimulated phosphorylation required the presence of Ca2+. The calmodulin antagonist W-7 and the Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent kinase II inhibitor KN-93 dose-dependently inhibited both phosphorylation and secretion, while the ‘inactive’ analogue KN-92 was effective only at significantly higher concentrations. Phosphorylation of phogrin was also stimulated in cells exposed to forskolin, an effect presumably mediated by protein kinase A (cAMP-dependent protein kinase). Under these conditions, phogrin phosphorylation could be dissociated from the secretory response. In MIN6 cells, as in pancreatic islets, cAMP potentiates rather than initiates insulin release. Thus our observations are consistent with a role for phogrin phosphorylation in the signal-transduction pathway at a site proximal to the exocytic event itself, possibly regulating secretory-granule mobilization and recruitment to the exocytic site.


e-Neuroforum ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Rettig ◽  
David R. Stevens

AbstractThe release of neurotransmitters at synapses belongs to the most important processes in the central nervous system. In the last decades much has been learned about the molecular mechanisms which form the basis for this fundamental process. Highly regulated exocytosis, based on the SNARE (soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive attachment protein receptor) complex and its regulatory molecules is the signature specialization of the nervous system and is shared by neurons and neuroendocrine cells. Cells of the immune system use a similar mechanism to release cytotoxic materials from secretory granules at contacts with virally or bacterially infected cells or cancer cells, in order to remove these threats. These contact zones have been termed immunological synapses in reference to the highly specific targeted exocytosis of effector molecules. Recent findings indicate that mutations in SNARE or SNARE-interacting proteins are the basis of a number of devastating immunological diseases. While SNARE complexes are ubiquitous and mediate a wide variety of membrane fusion events it is surprising that in many cases the SNARE proteins involved in immunological synapses are the same molecules which mediate regulated exocytosis of transmitters and hormones in neurons and neuroendocrine cells. These similarities raise the possibility that results obtained at immunological synapses may be applicable, in particular in the area of presynaptic function, to neuronal synapses. Since immunological synapses (IS) are assembled and disassembled in about a half an hour, the use of immune cells isolated from human blood allows not only the study of the molecular mechanisms of synaptic transmission in human cells, but is particularly suited to the examination of the assembly and disassembly of these “synapses” via live imaging. In this overview we discuss areas of similarity between synapses of the nervous and immune systems and in the process will refer to results of our experiments of the last few years.


1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 270-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. J. Haseloff ◽  
T. L. Freeman ◽  
V. Valmeekam ◽  
M. W. Melkus ◽  
F. Oner ◽  
...  

Galacturonic acid (GalUA) is a major component of pectin and polygalacturonic acid in the plant cell wall. In the phytopathogen Erwinia chrysanthemi, the uptake of molecules derived from degradation of these polymers is an important early step in the events preceding induction of pectinases, ultimately leading to plant tissue maceration. Uptake systems for GalUA and dimers of GalUA have been described and shown to be inducible in E. chrysanthemi. The GalUA uptake gene (exuT) was cloned and sequenced. Nucleotide sequence analysis identified an open reading frame encoding a 345-amino-acid polypeptide with a calculated mass of 37,825 Da. This polypeptide is predicted to be an integral membrane protein based on its high nonpolar amino acid content and hydropathic profile. Localization studies with the labeled polypeptide in the T7-RNA polymerase system also suggest that ExuT is a membrane protein. This evidence is further supported by the observation of hybrid ExuT-PhoA proteins in the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane following immunoblot analysis. Northern (RNA) analysis indicated that the gene is inducible in the presence of the monomer, GalUA. A targeted mutation in the exuT gene affected the utilization of GalUA as a sole carbon source for growth. Maceration of potato tuber tissue by this mutant was delayed and reduced, when compared with the parental strain EC16.


1986 ◽  
Vol 102 (2) ◽  
pp. 516-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
J S Bonifacino ◽  
P Perez ◽  
R D Klausner ◽  
I V Sandoval

The monoclonal antibody 5G10 reacted specifically with an 80-kD integral membrane protein in rat basophilic leukemia (RBL) cells. Immunofluorescence microscopy studies of RBL cells, fixed and permeabilized, revealed that the 80-kD protein was located in the membrane of cytoplasmic vesicles. The vesicles were identified as secretory granules by their content in immunoreactive serotonin. Expression of the 5G10 antigen on the surface of unstimulated RBL cells was low. However, RBL cells stimulated to secrete with anti-dinitrophenyl IgE followed by dinitrophenyl-bovine serum albumin or with the Ca2+ ionophore A-23187 displayed an increased expression of the antigen on their surface. Surface exposure of the 5G10 antigen was maximal at 5 min after stimulation of secretion. Removal of dinitrophenyl-bovine serum albumin from the incubation medium resulted in internalization of 50% of the antigen within 10 min.


1990 ◽  
Vol 111 (5) ◽  
pp. 2041-2052 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Thomas ◽  
H Betz

We have developed procedures for detecting synaptic vesicle-binding proteins by using glutaraldehyde-fixed or native vesicle fractions as absorbent matrices. Both adsorbents identify a prominent synaptic vesicle-binding protein of 36 kD in rat brain synaptosomes and mouse brain primary cultures. The binding of this protein to synaptic vesicles is competed by synaptophysin, a major integral membrane protein of synaptic vesicles, with half-maximal inhibition seen between 10(-8) and 10(-7) M synaptophysin. Because of its affinity for synaptophysin, we named the 36-kD synaptic vesicle-binding protein physophilin (psi nu sigma alpha, greek = bubble, vesicle; psi iota lambda os, greek = friend). Physophilin exhibits an isoelectric point of approximately 7.8, a Stokes radius of 6.6 nm, and an apparent sedimentation coefficient of 5.6 S, pointing to an oligomeric structure of this protein. It is present in synaptic plasma membranes prepared from synaptosomes but not in synaptic vesicles. In solubilization experiments, physophilin behaves as an integral membrane protein. Thus, a putative synaptic plasma membrane protein exhibits a specific interaction with one of the major membrane proteins of synaptic vesicles. This interaction may play a role in docking and/or fusion of synaptic vesicles to the presynaptic plasma membrane.


2002 ◽  
Vol 50 (7) ◽  
pp. 903-909 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shingo Kurabuchi ◽  
Shigeyasu Tanaka

We examined immunocytochemical localization of the prohormone convertases, PC1 and PC2, in the thyroid gland and respiratory tract of the adult mouse using the indirect enzyme- and immunogold-labeled antibody methods for light and electron microscopy, respectively. In the thyroid gland, PC1- and/or PC2-immunoreactive cells were cuboidal, scattered in the follicular epithelium and in the interfollicular spaces. When serial sections were immunostained with anti-calcitonin, anti-PC1, anti-calcitonin-gene-related-peptide (CGRP), and anti-PC2 sera, respectively, localization of both PC1 and PC2 was restricted to the calcitonin/CGRP-producing parafollicular cells. In the respiratory tract, only PC1 immunoreactivity was observed in the basal granulated neuroendocrine cells, which were scattered in the tracheal epithelium. Consecutive sections immunostained with anti-PC1 and anti-CGRP sera showed that a subpopulation of these PC1-immunoreactive cells contained CGRP. Double immunogold electron microscopy of the thyroid parafollicular cells revealed that calcitonin- and/or CGRP-immunopositive secretory granules were also labeled with both PC1 and PC2. These findings suggest that procalcitonin is proteolytically cleaved by PC2 alone or by PC2 together with PC1, and that the proCGRP is cleaved by PC1.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document