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Synchronization of secretory protein traffic in populations of cells

Nature Methods volume 9, pages 493–498 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

To dissect secretory traffic, we developed the retention using selective hooks (RUSH) system. RUSH is a two-state assay based on the reversible interaction of a hook protein fused to core streptavidin and stably anchored in the donor compartment with a reporter protein of interest fused to streptavidin-binding peptide (SBP). Biotin addition causes a synchronous release of the reporter from the hook. Using the RUSH system, we analyzed different transport characteristics of various Golgi and plasma membrane reporters at physiological temperature in living cells. Using dual-color simultaneous live-cell imaging of two cargos, we observed intra- and post-Golgi segregation of cargo traffic, consistent with observation in other systems. We show preliminarily that the RUSH system is usable for automated screening. The system should help increase the understanding of the mechanisms of trafficking and enable screens for molecules that perturb pathological protein transport.

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Figure 1: The RUSH system.
Figure 2: Synchronization of trafficking of diverse proteins with RUSH.
Figure 3: Diverse cargos exhibited differences in kinetics and morphology of transport carriers.
Figure 4: Dual-color simultaneous imaging of RUSH-synchronized traffic of two cargos in living cells.
Figure 5: Potential of the RUSH system for automated screening.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge members of the cell imaging platform of the Institut Curie (PICT-IBISA platform), especially V. Fraisier and P. Paul-Gilloteaux, and members of the Recombinant Antibodies and Proteins Platform, Curie Institute, for their support; M. Romao for technical help with electron microscopy; and E. del Nery for help with development of automated screening. We thank A. Akhmanova (Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam), V. Malhotra (Center for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona), A. El Marjou, P. Benaroch, S. Dufour (Institut Curie) for providing us plasmids coding for STIM1-NN, Ii, SBP, VSVGwt and E-cadherin, respectively; and D. Stephens (University of Bristol) for antibody to Sec24; and B. Goud and T. Jones for critically reading the manuscript. This work was supported by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, the Institut Curie, the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR 09-BLAN-0290) and the Incentive and Cooperative Programs from the Institut Curie. V.M. was supported by the European Molecular Biology Organization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Curie, Centre de Recherche, Paris, France

    Gaelle Boncompain, Severine Divoux, Nelly Gareil, Helene de Forges, Valentina Mercanti, Florence Jollivet, Graça Raposo & Franck Perez

  2. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité Mixte de Recherche 144, Paris, France

    Gaelle Boncompain, Severine Divoux, Nelly Gareil, Helene de Forges, Valentina Mercanti, Florence Jollivet, Graça Raposo & Franck Perez

  3. The BioPhenics Laboratory, Institut Curie, Paris, France

    Aurianne Lescure, Lynda Latreche & Franck Perez

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  1. Gaelle Boncompain
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Contributions

G.B. carried out most of the experiments, designed and set up some of the approaches, analyzed the data, prepared the figures and wrote the manuscript. S.D. was involved in most of the molecular biology experiments and carried out the biochemical experiments. N.G. was involved in the molecular biology experiments and in selection of the stable cell lines. H.d.F. carried out the total internal reflection fluorescence experiment. A.L. contributed to automated screening. L.L. established the stable cell lines. V.M. was involved at the very beginning of the project. F.J. was involved at the very beginning of the project. G.R. did the electron microscopy experiments, prepared the corresponding figure and corrected the manuscript. F.P. designed and supported the study, directed the work, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Franck Perez.

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Competing interests

F.P. is the author of a patent application that covers the commercial use of the RUSH system (EP2010/058229 and WO/2010/142785).

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figures 1–8 (PDF 13060 kb)

Supplementary Video 1

Real-time imaging of the synchronized trafficking of ManII-SBP-EGFP (corresponds to Fig. 3a). HeLa cells were transfected to express Ii-streptavidin as a hook and ManII-SBP-EGFP as a reporter. After 20 h of expression, at time 00:00, release of the reporter was induced by addition of biotin and monitored using a spinning disk confocal microscope. (MOV 5962 kb)

Supplementary Video 2

Real-time imaging of the synchronized trafficking of TNFα-SBP-EGFP (corresponds to Fig. 3b). HeLa cells were transfected to express Ii-streptavidin as a hook and TNFα-SBP-EGFP as a reporter. After 20 h of expression, at time 00:00, release of the reporter was induced by addition of biotin and monitored using a spinning disk confocal microscope. (MOV 3462 kb)

Supplementary Video 3

Real-time imaging of the synchronized trafficking of SBP-EGFP-E-cadherin (corresponds to Fig. 3c). HeLa cells were transfected to express Ii-streptavidin as a hook and SBP-EGFP–E-cadherin as a reporter. After 20 h of expression, at time 00:00, release of the reporter was induced by addition of biotin and monitored using a spinning disk confocal microscope. (MOV 6718 kb)

Supplementary Video 4

Real-time imaging of the synchronized trafficking of VSVGwt-SBP-EGFP. HeLa cells were transfected to express Ii-streptavidin as a cytoplasmic hook and VSVGwt-SBP-EGFP as a reporter. After 20 h of expression, at time 00:00, release of the reporter was induced by addition of biotin and monitored using a spinning disk confocal microscope. (MOV 901 kb)

Supplementary Video 5

Real-time TIRF microscopy of TNFα-SBP-EGFP exocytosis (corresponds to Supplementary Fig. 7). HeLa cells were transfected to express Ii-streptavidin as a hook and TNFα-SBP-EGFP as a reporter. Twenty-eight minutes after the addition of biotin, exocytosis at the plasma membrane was observed using TIRF microscopy. Many bursts of exocytosis can be observed in the two cells present in the field. Duration of the acquisition is indicated in min:s.ms. (MOV 1220 kb)

Supplementary Video 6

Dual-color, real-time imaging of the synchronized trafficking of TNFα-SBP-EGFP and ManII-SBP-mCherry (corresponds to Fig. 4a–g). HeLa cells were transfected to express Ii-streptavidin as a hook and TNFα-SBP-EGFP (green) and ManII-SBP-mCherry (red) as reporters. Twenty hours after transfection, at time 00:00, the release was induced by addition of biotin. Images were acquired using a confocal spinning disk microscope. (MOV 4468 kb)

Supplementary Video 7

Dual-color imaging of the synchronized trafficking of TNFα-SBP-EGFP and SBP-mCherry–E-cadherin (corresponds to Fig. 4h–j). HeLa cells were transfected to express Ii-streptavidin as a hook, TNFα-SBP-EGFP (green) and SBP-mCherry–E-cadherin (red). After 20 h of expression, at time 00:00, release of the fluorescent reporters was induced by addition of biotin and monitored using a spinning disk confocal microscope. Time is indicated in min:s. (MOV 5433 kb)

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Boncompain, G., Divoux, S., Gareil, N. et al. Synchronization of secretory protein traffic in populations of cells. Nat Methods 9, 493–498 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.1928

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