Endosome fusion in living cells overexpressing GFP-rab5

1999 ◽  
Vol 112 (21) ◽  
pp. 3667-3675 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.L. Roberts ◽  
M.A. Barbieri ◽  
K.M. Pryse ◽  
M. Chua ◽  
J.H. Morisaki ◽  
...  

CHO and BHK cells which overexpress either wild-type rab5 or rab5:Q79L, a constitutively active rab5 mutant, develop enlarged cytoplasmic vesicles that exhibit many characteristics of early endosomes including immunoreactivity for rab5 and transferrin receptor. Time-lapse video microscopy shows the enlarged endosomes arise primarily by fusion of smaller vesicles. These fusion events occur mostly by a ‘bridge’ fusion mechanism in which the initial opening between vesicles does not expand; instead, membrane flows slowly and continuously from the smaller to the larger endosome in the fusing pair, through a narrow, barely perceptible membranous ‘bridge’ between them. The unique aspect of rab5 mediated ‘bridge’ fusion is the persistence of a tight constriction at the site where vesicles merge and we hypothesize that this constriction results from the relatively slow disassembly of a putative docking/fusion complex. To determine the relation of rab5 to the fusion ‘bridge’, we used confocal fluorescence microscopy to monitor endosome fusion in cells overexpressing GFP-rab5 fusion proteins. Vesicle docking in these cells is accompanied by recruitment of the GFP-rab5 into a brightly fluorescent spot in the ‘bridge’ region between fusing vesicles that persists throughout the entire length of the fusion event and which often persist for minutes following endosome fusion. Other endosomal membrane markers, including FM4-64, are not concentrated in fusion ‘bridges’. These results support the idea that the GFP-rab5 spots represent the localized accumulation of GFP-rab5 between fusing endosomes and not simply overlap of adjacent membranes. The idea that the GFP-rab5 spots do not represent membrane overlap is further supported by experiments using photobleaching techniques and confocal imaging which show that GFP-rab5 localized in spots between fusion couplets is resistant to diffusion while GFP-rab5 on endosomal membranes away from these spots rapidly diffuses with a rate constant of about 1.0 (+/-0.3) x10(-)(9)cm(2)/second.

1996 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Aniento ◽  
F Gu ◽  
R G Parton ◽  
J Gruenberg

In this paper, we show that beta COP is present on endosomes and is required for the formation of vesicles which mediate transport from early to late endosomes. Both the association of beta COP to endosomal membranes as well as transport vesicle formation depend on the lumenal pH. We find that epsilon COP, but not gamma COP, is also associated to endosomes, and that this association is also lumenal pH dependent. Our data, thus, indicate that a subset of COPs is part of the mechanism regulating endosomal membrane transport, and that membrane association of these COPs is controlled by the acidic properties of early endosomes, presumably via a trans-membrane pH sensor.


1997 ◽  
Vol 3 (S2) ◽  
pp. 137-138
Author(s):  
R.L. Roberts ◽  
M.A. Barbieri ◽  
P.D. Stahl

Previous studies have demonstrated that GTPgS and rab5:Q79L, a constitutively active rab5 mutant, stimulate endosome fusion in in vitro assays [Cell Reg. 1:113-124 (1989)]. Additionally, electron microscopy has shown that under these conditions, endosomes form incompletely fused couplets [Cell Reg. 1:113-124 (1989); Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 326:64-72 (1996)]. CHO and BHK cells that overexpress rab5:Q79L develop ‘giant’ cytoplasmic vesicles that exhibit many characteristics of early endosomes including immunoreactivity for rab 5 and transferrin receptor (data not shown). The formation of these vesicles has been analyzed by time-lapse video microscopy which shows the enlarged endosomes arise primarily by fusion of smaller vesicles. These endosome fusion events occur by two distinct mechanisms that differ in temporal and spatial characteristics of the membrane merger process and we refer to these processes as “explosive” versus “bridge” fusion. “Explosive” fusion is a rapid process in which the initial opening that forms between contacting vesicles expands rapidly and permits an abrupt, complete coalescence of membranes (Fig. 1).


Author(s):  
Juan Carlos Polanco ◽  
Gabriel Rhys Hand ◽  
Adam Briner ◽  
Chuanzhou Li ◽  
Jürgen Götz

AbstractThe microtubule-associated protein tau has a critical role in Alzheimer’s disease and other tauopathies. A proposed pathomechanism in the progression of tauopathies is the trans-synaptic spreading of tau seeds, with a role for exosomes which are secretory nanovesicles generated by late endosomes. Our previous work demonstrated that brain-derived exosomes isolated from tau transgenic rTg4510 mice encapsulate tau seeds with the ability to induce tau aggregation in recipient cells. We had also shown that exosomes can hijack the endosomal pathway to spread through interconnected neurons. Here, we reveal how tau seeds contained within internalized exosomes exploit mechanisms of lysosomal degradation to escape the endosome and induce tau aggregation in the cytosol of HEK293T-derived ‘tau biosensor cells’. We found that the majority of the exosome-containing endosomes fused with lysosomes to form endolysosomes. Exosomes induced their permeabilization, irrespective of the presence of tau seeds, or whether the exosomal preparations originated from mouse brains or HEK293T cells. We also found that permeabilization is a conserved mechanism, operating in both non-neuronal tau biosensor cells and primary neurons. However, permeabilization of endolysosomes only occurred in a small fraction of cells, which supports the notion that permeabilization occurs by a thresholded mechanism. Interestingly, tau aggregation was only induced in cells that exhibited permeabilization, presenting this as an escape route of exosomal tau seeds into the cytosol. Overexpression of RAB7, which is required for the formation of endolysosomes, strongly increased tau aggregation. Conversely, inhibition of lysosomal function with alkalinizing agents, or by knocking-down RAB7, decreased tau aggregation. Together, we conclude that the enzymatic activities of lysosomes permeabilize exosomal and endosomal membranes, thereby facilitating access of exosomal tau seeds to cytosolic tau to induce its aggregation. Our data underscore the importance of endosomal membrane integrity in mechanisms of cellular invasion by misfolded proteins that are resistant to lysosomal degradation.


2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 1792-1805 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Charles Boisset ◽  
Charlotte Andrieu-Soler ◽  
Wiggert A van Cappellen ◽  
Thomas Clapes ◽  
Catherine Robin

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Salogiannis ◽  
Martin J. Egan ◽  
Samara L. Reck-Peterson

Eukaryotic cells use microtubule-based intracellular transport for the delivery of many subcellular cargos, including organelles. The canonical view of organelle transport is that organelles directly recruit molecular motors via cargo-specific adaptors. In contrast to this view, we show here that peroxisomes move by hitchhiking on early endosomes, an organelle that directly recruits the transport machinery. Using the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans we find that hitchhiking is mediated by a novel endosome-associated linker protein, PxdA. PxdA is required for normal distribution and long-range movement of peroxisomes, but not early endosomes or nuclei. Using simultaneous time-lapse imaging we find that early endosome-associated PxdA localizes to the leading edge of moving peroxisomes. We identify a coiled-coil region within PxdA that is necessary and sufficient for early endosome localization and peroxisome distribution and motility. These results present a new mechanism of microtubule-based organelle transport where peroxisomes hitchhike on early endosomes and identify PxdA as the novel linker protein required for this coupling.


BioTechniques ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 703-710 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica M. Teddy ◽  
Rusty Lansford ◽  
Paul M. Kulesa

2011 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. e53
Author(s):  
Ryosuke Enoki ◽  
Shigeru Kuroda ◽  
Daisuke Ono ◽  
Tetsuo Ueda ◽  
Hasan Mazhir ◽  
...  

2006 ◽  
Vol 17 (12) ◽  
pp. 5153-5162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beat E. Schaub ◽  
Bea Berger ◽  
Eric G. Berger ◽  
Jack Rohrer

The Golgi apparatus (GA) is the organelle where complex glycan formation takes place. In addition, it is a major sorting site for proteins destined for various subcellular compartments or for secretion. Here we investigate β1,4-galactosyltransferase 1 (galT) and α2,6-sialyltransferase 1 (siaT), two trans-Golgi glycosyltransferases, with respect to their different pathways in monensin-treated cells. Upon addition of monensin galT dissociates from siaT and the GA and accumulates in swollen vesicles derived from the trans-Golgi network (TGN), as shown by colocalization with TGN46, a specific TGN marker. We analyzed various chimeric constructs of galT and siaT by confocal fluorescence microscopy and time-lapse videomicroscopy as well as Optiprep density gradient fractionation. We show that the first 13 amino acids of the cytoplasmic tail of galT are necessary for its localization to swollen vesicles induced by monensin. We also show that the monensin sensitivity resulting from the cytoplasmic tail can be conferred to siaT, which leads to the rapid accumulation of the galT–siaT chimera in swollen vesicles upon monensin treatment. On the basis of these data, we suggest that cycling between the trans-Golgi cisterna and the trans-Golgi network of galT is signal mediated.


2000 ◽  
Vol 151 (3) ◽  
pp. 601-612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Nielsen ◽  
Savvas Christoforidis ◽  
Sandrine Uttenweiler-Joseph ◽  
Marta Miaczynska ◽  
Frederique Dewitte ◽  
...  

Rab5 regulates endocytic membrane traffic by specifically recruiting cytosolic effector proteins to their site of action on early endosomal membranes. We have characterized a new Rab5 effector complex involved in endosomal fusion events. This complex includes a novel protein, Rabenosyn-5, which, like the previously characterized Rab5 effector early endosome antigen 1 (EEA1), contains an FYVE finger domain and is recruited in a phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase–dependent fashion to early endosomes. Rabenosyn-5 is complexed to the Sec1-like protein hVPS45. hVPS45 does not interact directly with Rab5, therefore Rabenosyn-5 serves as a molecular link between hVPS45 and the Rab5 GTPase. This property suggests that Rabenosyn-5 is a closer mammalian functional homologue of yeast Vac1p than EEA1. Furthermore, although both EEA1 and Rabenosyn-5 are required for early endosomal fusion, only overexpression of Rabenosyn-5 inhibits cathepsin D processing, suggesting that the two proteins play distinct roles in endosomal trafficking. We propose that Rab5-dependent formation of membrane domains enriched in phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate has evolved as a mechanism for the recruitment of multiple effector proteins to mammalian early endosomes, and that these domains are multifunctional, depending on the differing activities of the effector proteins recruited.


2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 110 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. L. Daughtry ◽  
J. L. Rosenkrantz ◽  
N. Lazar ◽  
N. Redmayne ◽  
K. A. Nevonen ◽  
...  

A primary contributor to in vitro fertilization (IVF) failure is the presence of unbalanced chromosomes in pre-implantation embryos. Previous array-based and next-generation sequencing (NGS) studies determined that ~50 to 80% of human embryos are aneuploid at the cleavage stage. During early mitotic divisions, many human embryos also sequester mis-segregated chromosomes into micronuclei and concurrently undergo cellular fragmentation. We hypothesised that cellular fragmentation represents a response to mis-segregated chromosomes that are encapsulated into micronuclei. Here, we utilised the rhesus macaque pre-implantation embryo as a model to study human embryonic aneuploidy using a combination of EevaTM time-lapse imaging for evaluating cell divisions, single-cell/-fragment DNA-Sequencing (DNA-Seq), and confocal microscopy of nuclear structures. Results from our time-lapse image analysis demonstrated that there are considerable differences in the timing of the first and third mitotic divisions between rhesus blastocysts and those that arrested before this stage in development (P < 0.01; ANOVA). By examining the chromosome content of each blastomere from cleavage stage embryos via DNA-Seq, we determined that rhesus embryos have an aneuploidy frequency up to ~62% (N = 26) with several embryos exhibiting chromosomal mosaicism between blastomeres (N = 6). Certain blastomeres also exhibited reciprocal whole chromosomal gains or losses, indicating that these embryos had undergone mitotic non-disjunction early in development. In addition, findings of reciprocal sub-chromosomal deletions/duplications among blastomeres suggest that chromosomal breakage had occurred in some embryos as well. Embryo immunostaining for the nuclear envelope protein, LAMIN-B1, demonstrated that fragmented cleavage-stage rhesus embryos often contain micronuclei and that cellular fragments can enclose DNA. Our DNA-Seq analysis confirmed that cellular fragments might encapsulate whole and/or partial chromosomes lost from blastomeres. When embryos were immunostained with gamma-H2AX, a marker of chromatin fragility, we observed distinct foci solely in micronuclei and DNA-containing cellular fragments. This suggests that micronuclei may be ejected from blastomeres through the process of cellular fragmentation and, once sequestered, these mis-segregated chromosomes become highly unstable and undergo DNA degradation. Finally, we also observed that ~10% of embryos prevented cellular fragments or large blastomeres from incorporating into the inner cell mass or trophectoderm at the blastocyst stage (n = 5). Upon confocal imaging, multiple nuclei and intense gamma-H2AX foci were found in a large unincorporated blastomere in one of the blastocysts. Altogether, our findings demonstrate that the rhesus embryo responds to segregation errors by eliminating chromosome-containing micronuclei via cellular fragmentation and/or selecting against aneuploid blastomeres that fail to divide during pre-implantation development with significant implications for human IVF.


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