![]() |
|
|
Vol. 19, Issue 7, 2682-2695, July 2008
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

Department of Molecular Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA 02114
Submitted November 8, 2007;
Revised April 8, 2008;
Accepted April 11, 2008
Monitoring Editor: Sandra Lemmon
After endocytosis, membrane proteins are often sorted between two alternative pathways: a recycling pathway and a degradation pathway. Relatively little is known about how trafficking through these alternative pathways is differentially regulated. Here, we identify UNC-108/Rab2 as a regulator of postendocytic trafficking in both neurons and coelomocytes. Mutations in the Caenorhabditis elegans Rab2 gene unc-108, caused the green fluorescent protein (GFP)-tagged glutamate receptor GLR-1 (GLR-1::GFP) to accumulate in the ventral cord and in neuronal cell bodies. In neuronal cell bodies of unc-108/Rab2 mutants, GLR-1::GFP was found in tubulovesicular structures that colocalized with markers for early and recycling endosomes, including Syntaxin-13 and Rab8. GFP-tagged Syntaxin-13 also accumulated in the ventral cord of unc-108/Rab2 mutants. UNC-108/Rab2 was not required for ubiquitin-mediated sorting of GLR-1::GFP into the multivesicular body (MVB) degradation pathway. Mutations disrupting the MVB pathway and unc-108/Rab2 mutations had additive effects on GLR-1::GFP levels in the ventral cord. In coelomocytes, postendocytic trafficking of the marker Texas Red-bovine serum albumin was delayed. These results demonstrate that UNC-108/Rab2 regulates postendocytic trafficking, most likely at the level of early or recycling endosomes, and that UNC-108/Rab2 and the MVB pathway define alternative postendocytic trafficking mechanisms that operate in parallel. These results define a new function for Rab2 in protein trafficking.
* These authors contributed equally to this work.
Present address: Department of Biological Chemistry, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
Address correspondence to: Joshua M. Kaplan (kaplan{at}molbio.mgh.harvard.edu)
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
B. Short Rab2 directs a stop-loss program J. Cell Biol., September 21, 2009; 186(6): 769 - 769. [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
S. L. Edwards, N. K. Charlie, J. E. Richmond, J. Hegermann, S. Eimer, and K. G. Miller Impaired dense core vesicle maturation in Caenorhabditis elegans mutants lacking Rab2 J. Cell Biol., September 21, 2009; 186(6): 881 - 895. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
M. Sumakovic, J. Hegermann, L. Luo, S. J. Husson, K. Schwarze, C. Olendrowitz, L. Schoofs, J. Richmond, and S. Eimer UNC-108/RAB-2 and its effector RIC-19 are involved in dense core vesicle maturation in Caenorhabditis elegans J. Cell Biol., September 21, 2009; 186(6): 897 - 914. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||