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Golgi sorting regulates organization and activity of GPI proteins at apical membranes

Nature Chemical Biology volume 10, pages 350–357 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Here we combined classical biochemistry with new biophysical approaches to study the organization of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins (GPI-APs) with high spatial and temporal resolution at the plasma membrane of polarized epithelial cells. We show that in polarized MDCK cells, after sorting in the Golgi, each GPI-AP reaches the apical surface in homoclusters. Golgi-derived homoclusters are required for their subsequent plasma membrane organization into cholesterol-dependent heteroclusters. By contrast, in nonpolarized MDCK cells, GPI-APs are delivered to the surface as monomers in an unpolarized manner and are not able to form heteroclusters. We further demonstrate that this GPI-AP organization is regulated by the content of cholesterol in the Golgi apparatus and is required to maintain the functional state of the protein at the apical membrane. Thus, in contrast to fibroblasts, in polarized epithelial cells, a selective cholesterol-dependent sorting mechanism in the Golgi regulates both the organization and function of GPI-APs at the apical surface.

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Figure 1: GFP-FR is in homoclusters at the apical surface of living MDCK cells.
Figure 2: Apical GPI-AP homoclusters and heteroclusters have different sensitivities to cholesterol depletion.
Figure 3: Both homocluster and heterocluster organization are dependent on the polarity status of MDCK cells.
Figure 4: Cholesterol addition is necessary and sufficient to induce homoclusters and heteroclusters of GPI-APs in nonpolarized MDCK cells.
Figure 5: Cholesterol addition promotes homoclustering of GPI-AP in the Golgi and regulates heterocluster formation and GPI-AP activity at the cell surface.
Figure 6: Model of GPI-AP organization and activity in MDCK cells.

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Acknowledgements

We thank P. Casanova (Institut Pasteur) for his technical support, N. Auduge (Institut Jacques Monod, ImagoSeine) for his help in FLIM analysis, P. Riccio (University of Naples Federico II) for her help in statistical analysis and the imaging facility at Pasteur Institute (PFID) and at CEINGE Institute (DIM). We thank A. Le Bivic (Institut de Biologie du Développement de Marseille-Luminy (IBDML), Marseille, France), S. Mayor (National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore, India) and N. Sidenius (Fondazione Italiana Ricerca sul Cancro Institute of Molecular Oncology (IFOM), Milan, Italy) for cDNA encoding p75-GFP, CHO cells expressing GFP-FR, and cDNAs encoding mGFP-GPI and mGFP-mGFP GPI (uPAR), respectively. This work was supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) (05-BLAN 296-01 and ANR-09-BLAN-0122) and the European Union FP7 (Priority, grant 222887) to C.Z.; an Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC) grant (MFAG 2007-2009) to S.P.; ANR PFTV2007 and Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (FRM) 'Grands Equipements' to M.C.-M.; and grants NIH-P41 P41-RRO3155 and NIH-P50-GM076516 from the US National Institutes of Health to E.G.

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Author notes

  1. Simona Paladino and Stéphanie Lebreton: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Medicina Molecolare e Biotecnologie Mediche, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Napoli, Italy

    Simona Paladino, Simona Tivodar & Chiara Zurzolo

  2. CEINGE Biotecnologie Avanzate, Napoli, Italy

    Simona Paladino & Fabio Formiggini

  3. Unité de Trafic Membranaire et Pathogénèse, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France

    Stéphanie Lebreton & Chiara Zurzolo

  4. Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics, University of California, Irvine, California, USA

    Giulia Ossato & Enrico Gratton

  5. Institut de Génétique et Dévelopement de Rennes, UMR 6290, CNRS, Université de Rennes 1, Rennes, France

    Marc Tramier

  6. Complexes Macromoléculaires en Cellules Vivantes, Institut Jacques Monod, UMR 7592 CNRS, University Paris-Diderot, Paris, France

    Maïté Coppey-Moisan

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Contributions

C.Z. conceived the project. C.Z., S.P. and S.L. designed experiments. S.P. planned and performed N&B and biochemical experiments, and S.L. planned and performed FLIM experiments. S.T. planned and performed biochemical experiments. E.G. developed the N&B technique, E.G. and G.O. helped with N&B data analysis, and M.T. and M.C.-M. developed the FLIM technique and helped with data analysis. F.F. performed the mathematical analysis of N&B data. S.P., S.L. and C.Z. wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and manuscript text.

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Correspondence to Chiara Zurzolo.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Paladino, S., Lebreton, S., Tivodar, S. et al. Golgi sorting regulates organization and activity of GPI proteins at apical membranes. Nat Chem Biol 10, 350–357 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.1495

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