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Vol. 18, Issue 9, 3323-3339, September 2007
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*Department of Genetics, Philipps-University, D-35032 Marburg, Germany; and
Institute for Microbiology and Genetics, Georg-August University, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
Submitted October 6, 2006;
Revised June 5, 2007;
Accepted June 12, 2007
Monitoring Editor: Daniel Lew
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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Bud8p and Bud9p are two transmembrane glycoproteins that are thought to act as landmark components or cortical tags for the bipolar budding program of diploid cells (Zahner et al., 1996
; Taheri et al., 2000
; Harkins et al., 2001
). Bud8p is localized at the distal cell pole, and it is required for distal bud site selection, suggesting that it is part of the distal landmark. Bud9p is localized at the proximal pole, and it is required for proximal pole selection, indicating that it functions as part of the proximal tag (Harkins et al., 2001
). Because Bud9p in certain strain backgrounds is also found at the distal pole and physically interacts with Bud8p, it might fulfill an additional function at the distal pole where it seems to act as a nutritionally controlled inhibitor of distal budding (Taheri et al., 2000
). Bud8p and Bud9p interact with two further integral membrane proteins required for bipolar budding, Rax1p and Rax2p, indicating that interactions among these proteins are important to mark cortical sites (Chen et al., 2000
; Kang et al., 2004a
). In addition, a physical link has been established between Bud8p and Bud5p, suggesting that Bud8p might control bud site selection by interaction with the Rsr1p/Bud1p GTPase module (Kang et al., 2004b
). The molecular functions of Bud8p and Bud9p are not well understood. The overall structures of Bud8p and Bud9p are similar in that both are predicted to consist of a large N-terminal extracellular domain, followed by a membrane-spanning domain (TM1), a short cytoplasmic loop, a second membrane-spanning domain (TM2), and a very short extracellular domain at the C terminus. The N-terminal portion of both proteins contains several potential N- and O-glycosylation sites that seem to be functional (Harkins et al., 2001
). However, domains of Bud8p and Bud9p that are required for transport of the proteins to the cell poles or that confer interaction with other landmark proteins or downstream-acting components of the budding machinery are not known. Here, we have performed a systematic analysis of Bud8p and Bud9p to better understand the structure and function of bipolar landmark proteins.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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1278b genetic background, and they are listed in Table 1. Standard methods for transformation and genetic crosses were used and standard yeast culture YPD, YNB, and SC media were prepared essentially as described previously (Guthrie and Fink, 1991
::HIS3 and bud9
::HIS3 deletion mutations were introduced into haploid strains as described previously (Taheri et al., 2000
strains YHUM861 and YHUM904, respectively, and appropriate crossing of resulting haploid strains. Heterozygous BUD8 deletion strains YHUM1023 to YHUM1028 were obtained by crossing appropriate haploid BUD8 deletion strains to strain YHUM217 carrying a functional BUD8 gene. Homozygous diploid BUD9 deletion strains YHUM1009 to YHUM1022 were obtained by integration of single copies of plasmids BHUM796 to BHUM809 (after linearization with Bst1107I) at the TRP1-locus of bud9
strain YHUM994 and of plasmids BHUM810 to BHUM823 (after linearization with BstEII) at the LEU2-locus of bud9
strain YHUM995, respectively, and appropriate crossing of resulting haploid strains. Heterozygous BUD9 deletion strains YHUM1029 to YHUM1031 were obtained by crossing appropriate haploid BUD9 deletion strains to strain YHUM215 carrying a functional BUD9 gene. In all cases, single plasmid integration was verified by southern hybridization analysis. Strains expressing BUD5-GFP were constructed by direct tagging of the endogenous BUD5 gene (Sheff and Thorn, 2004
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BUD9. Plasmids BHUM796 to BHUM823 were obtained by a similar strategy described for the BUD8 deletion plasmids. Seven fragments containing parts of the BUD9 ORF plus 944 base pairs of upstream sequence were generated by PCR by using plasmid BHUM795 as template and oligonucleotides BUD9X-1 and BUD9DEL01 to BUD9DEL07, respectively, that introduce a SpeI restriction site at the 5' end and an EcoRI site at the 3' end of the PCR products. In addition, the complete BUD9 coding was amplified as SpeI-XhoI fragment with BUD9X-1 and BUD9Y-1. All fragments were inserted into plasmid pBlueskript KS, and a BglII fragment carrying a myc9 epitope was isolated from plasmid BHUM894 and inserted into the single BglII site present after the start codon of the BUD9 ORF present in all fragments. Another seven fragments making up parts of the BUD9 ORF and 384 base pairs of the downstream region were amplified as EcoRI-XhoI fragments by using the oligonucleotides BUD9DEL08 to BUD9DEL14 and BUD9Y-1 and inserted into pBlueskript KS after digestion with EcoRI and XhoI. Sequencing confirmed the cloning of each PCR product and the correct orientation of the myc9-epitopes in the SpeI-EcoRI fragments and the full-length version of BUD9. Appropriate fragments were combined using the EcoRI restriction site and subsequently cloned as SpeI-XhoI fragments into pRS304 to obtain plasmids BHUM796 to BHUM809, into pRS305 to obtain plasmids BHUM810 to BHUM823, into plasmid pRS425 to obtain plasmids BHUM1027 to BHUM1040 and into pRS426 to yield plasmids BHUM880 to BHUM893.
To generate plasmids BHUM838 and BHUM839, a YFP-BUD9 DNA fragment making up 944 base pairs of upstream sequence, the BUD9 start codon, 705 base pairs of yellow fluorescent protein (YFP)-coding sequence, and 18 base pairs of the BUD9 ORF was amplified from BHUM895 by PCR by using oligonucleotides BUD9X-1 and BUD9DEL01. The fragment was digested with SpeI and EcoRI, inserted into pBlueskript KS, and verified DNA by sequencing. The SpeI-EcoRI fragment was then inserted into plasmid BHUM881 and BHUM882 after restriction with SpeI and EcoRI to yield plasmids BHUM838 and BHUM839. Plasmids BHUM837 and BHUM841 to BHUM850 were obtained by gap repair in yeast. First, an YFP-BUD9 fragment was amplified by PCR by using BHUM895 as DNA template and primers AO-BUD9-1 and AO-BUD9-2. The resulting PCR product was verified by DNA sequencing after insertion into the EcoRV site of pBlueskript KS. In a second step, plasmids BHUM880 and BHUM884 to BHUM893 were linearized by digestion with BamHI, dephosphorylated with alkaline shrimp phosphatase and cotransformed into yeast strain RH2450 along with the PCR product carrying the YFP-BUD9 fragment. Plasmid DNA was isolated from Ura+ transformants and analyzed by PCR and DNA sequencing to obtain plasmids BHUM837 and BHUM841 to BHUM850.
Determination of Budding Patterns
For characterization of budding patterns, bud scars and birth scars were visualized by fluorescence microscopy. Cells were grown in liquid YPD medium at 30°C to an OD600 of 0.6, collected by centrifugation in conical polystyrene tubes, resuspended in 1 ml of water, sonicated to disperse clumps, and fixed for 2 h at room temperature by adding formaldehyde to 3.7%. Samples were rinsed twice with water, resuspended in 100 µl of a fresh stock of 1 mg/ml calcofluor white (Fluorescent Brightener 28; Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO), incubated for 10 min in the dark, washed three times with water, and resuspended in water. Birth scars and bud scars were visualized by fluorescence microscopy using a Zeiss Axiovert microscope (Carl Zeiss, Jena, Germany) and photographed using a Hamamatsu Orca ER digital camera and the Improvision Openlab software (Improvision, Coventry, United Kingdom). Budding patterns of diploid strains were determined by two different methods. For evaluation of early bud site selection, the position of bud scars was determined relative to the birth scar for each 100 cells with one, two, three, or four bud scars. Positions of bud scars were scored as "proximal" if located within the third of the cell centered on the birth scar side, as "equatorial" if located in the middle third of the cell, and as "distal" if located within the third of the cell most distal to the birth scar. To score budding patterns of older cells, cells with 5 to 12 bud scars were analyzed and divided into the following four classes: 1) "unipolar proximal" for cells with most bud scars at the proximal cell pole immediately adjacent to one another; 2) "unipolar distal" for cells with most bud scars at the distal cell pole immediately adjacent to one another; 3) "bipolar" for cells with at least three bud scars at the distal cell pole and at least one bud scar at the proximal pole; and 4) "random" for cells with bud scar distribution other than bipolar or unipolar. For each strain and experiment, at least 200 cells were analyzed. For haploid strains, positions of bud scars of at least 200 cells with more than four bud scars were determined, and cells were divided into either of the three classes "axial" for cells with most bud scars immediately adjacent to the previous site of cell separation, "bipolar" for cells with at least two bud scars at either cell pole, and "random" for all other distributions.
Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) Fluorescence Microscopy
Strains harboring plasmids encoding GFP-Bud8p or YFP-Bud9p variants were individually grown to mid-log phase in liquid YNB medium as described for bud scar staining. Cells from 1 ml of the cultures were harvested by centrifugation and immediately viewed in vivo on a Zeiss Axiovert microscope by differential interference contrast microscopy and fluorescence microscopy using a GFP or YFP filter set (AHF Analysentechnik AG, Tübingen, Germany). Cells were photographed using a Hamamatsu Orca ER digital camera (Hamamatsu, Bridgewater, NJ) and the Improvision Openlab software (Improvision).
Protein Analysis
Preparation of Total Cell Extracts.
Yeast cells were grown at 30°C in YPD medium or in SC medium lacking nutrients as needed to maintain various plasmids. Protein extracts were prepared from cultures grown to mid-log phase (OD600
1.0). Briefly, cells were harvested by centrifugation at 4°C and washed once with TE buffer (10 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.0, and 1 mM EDTA, pH 8.0). After centrifugation, cells were resuspended in 280 µl of ice-cold buffer R (50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 1 mM EDTA, pH 7.5, 50 mM dithiothreitol, 1 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride [PMSF], 0.5 mM N-tosyl-L-phenylalanine chloromethyl ketone [TPCK], 0.5 mM N-tosyl-L-lysine chloromethyl ketone [TLCK], and 0.5 mM pepstatin A). Cells were then broken by vortexing with glass beads for 10 min at 4°C. This step was followed by addition of Triton X-100 and SDS to a concentration of 2% to each sample and vortexing for 1 min. Crude lysates were then spun down for 2 min at 3000 rpm to remove glass beads and large cell debris. The supernatant was collected as total cell lysate. Two microliters of each extract were removed to determine total protein concentration using a protein assay kit (Bio-Rad, Munich, Germany). SDS sample buffer (Laemmli, 1970
) was then added to each reaction, and proteins were denatured by heating for 10 min at 65°C.
Purification of Glutathione S-Transferase (GST)-Fusion Proteins. Extracts of strains expressing GST fusion proteins together with myc-tagged versions of Bud8p and Bud9p were prepared from cultures grown for 4 h to exponential growth phase in SC medium lacking nutrients as needed to maintain plasmids. Cells were harvested by centrifugation for 5 min at 3000 rpm, washed in 2% galactose solution, and transferred to SC medium containing 2% galactose. After incubation for 6 h at 30°C, cultures were chilled on ice. Cells were harvested by centrifugation at 4°C, washed once in B-buffer (50 mM HEPES, pH 7.5, 50 mM KCl, and 5 mM EDTA, pH 7.5), resuspended in 300 µl of ice-cold B-buffer containing protease inhibitors (50 mM dithiothreitol, 1 mM PMSF, 0.5 mM TPCK, 0.5 mM TLCK, and 0.5 mM pepstatin A), and transferred to 2-ml reaction tubes. Cells were broken by vortexing with glass beads at 4°C for 10 min, followed by addition of 300 µl of B-buffer plus protease inhibitors and Triton X-100 to a final concentration of 1%. Samples were mixed again by vortexing at 4°C for 1 min, followed by centrifugation for 3 min at 2000 rpm to remove glass beads and large cell debris. Ten microliters of extracts was removed to determine total protein concentration. Eighty microliters of the supernatant was transferred to a 1.5-ml reaction tube and denatured by addition of SDS sample buffer and heating for 5 min at 65°C. Then, 175 µl of the remaining extract was mixed with 800 µl of B-buffer plus protease inhibitors plus 1% Triton X-100 and 100 µl of 50% glutathione-Sepharose and incubated overnight at 4°C. Beads were repeatedly washed in B-buffer plus 0.1% Triton X-100 and collected to purify GST-fusion proteins and any associated proteins. Samples were denatured by heating at 65°C for 5 min in SDS sample buffer.
Plasma Membrane Association.
Total cell lysates were prepared essentially as described previously (Harkins et al., 2001
), but by using the following protease inhibitors: 1 mM PMSF, 0.5 mM TPCK, 0.5 mM TLCK, 0.5 mM pepstatin A, and 0.01 mM chymostatin. Aliquots of total cell extracts were centrifuged for 1 h at 100,000 x g at 4°C, and the supernatant (S) and pellet (P) fractions were analyzed separately by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and immunoblotting.
Immunoblot Analysis.
Equal amounts of proteins were subjected to SDS-PAGE by using 10% gels (Laemmli, 1970
). Proteins were separated and then transferred to nitrocellulose membranes (Whatman Schleicher and Schuell, Dassel, Germany) by electrophoresis overnight at 30 V using a Mini- PROTEAN 3 electrophoresis system (Bio-Rad). Myc-tagged proteins as well as Cdc42p were detected using enhanced chemiluminescence technology (GE Healthcare, Little Chalfont, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom) after incubation of membranes with monoclonal mouse anti-myc antibodies (9E10), rabbit polyclonal anti-Cdc42p antibodies (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA), or polyclonal anti-GST antibodies (Santa Cruz Biotechnology). Peroxidase-coupled goat anti-mouse immunoglobulin G and peroxidase-coupled goat anti-rabbit immunoglobulin G antibodies (Santa Cruz Biotechnology) were used as secondary antibodies.
| RESULTS |
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or bud9
yeast strains, and resulting haploids were used to construct homozygous or heterozygous diploid mutant strains. Expression of all BUD8 and BUD9 deletion constructs was determined in homozygous diploids by Western blot analysis (Figure 1). The myc-tagged full-length Bud8p protein with a calculated mass of 75 kDa produced multiple signals occurring between 85 and 140 kDa (Figure 1A). Appearance of Bud8p at higher size partly results from glycosylation (Harkins et al., 2001
375-505) produced multiple bands, with one band appearing in the range of the calculated molecular weight and with further bands appearing at a higher size, indicating that these variants are glycosylated. The epitope-tagged full-length Bud9p protein with a calculated weight of 75 kDa also produced several bands ranging from 80 to 130 kDa, reflecting modification of the protein by N- and O-glycosylation (Harkins et al., 2001
168-283), they produced one band appearing around the predicted molecular weight and further bands at higher sizes (Figure 1B). Remarkably, the variants of Bud8p and Bud9p that lack the predicted transmembrane domains (Bud8p
513-600 and Bud9p
460-544) still produced higher-molecular-weight bands, indicating that these proteins might still be glycosylated. However, the effects of the different deletions on N- and O-glycosylation of Bud8p and Bud9p were not further investigated in this study. In summary, all Bud8p and Bud9p mutant proteins were produced at levels that allowed further functional analysis.
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7-53, BUD8
7-114, and BUD8
468-505) that established a bipolar budding pattern (Figure 2 and Table 3). A quantitative evaluation of the positions of the first four bud scars revealed that the two strains expressing BUD8
7-53 and BUD8
7-114, respectively, formed their first two buds almost exclusively at the distal cell pole and only afterward started to select the proximal pole with significant frequency. In cells with four bud scars,
70% of all these were located at the distal cell pole and 15–20% at the proximal pole. Thus, the N-terminal part of Bud8p (residues 7-114) does not seem to carry sequences required for establishment of the bipolar budding pattern. The third mutant of this bipolar class expressing BUD8
468-505 produced a bipolar budding pattern after several rounds of cell division, but development of the pattern was distinct from that of a control strain (Figure 2 and Table 3). In the BUD8
468-505 mutant strain, bud scars were formed at both cell poles with almost equal frequency already during the first rounds of cell division of newborn cells, whereas the initial bud scars of a control strain emerge predominantly from the distal pole. Thus, the Bud8p segment encompassing residues 468-505 seems to contribute to high-frequency selection of the distal pole during the first rounds of cell division of newborn cells, but it is not required for establishment of the bipolar pattern per se. The second class of mutants included three strains, which expressed the BUD8
74-216, BUD8
375-505, or BUD8
513-600 allele. These strains predominantly selected the proximal pole for budding with very high frequency similar to a bud8
deletion strain that lacks BUD8 (Figure 2 and Table 3). These mutants define two segments of Bud8p, one residing in the N-terminal portion and the other being located at the C-terminal part, that both are indispensable for functionality of the protein. A third class included the BUD8
173-325, BUD8
268-325, and BUD8
268-417 expressing strains. Surprisingly, these strains produced a random budding pattern with a very high frequency ranging from 73 to 83%. A random budding phenotype has not been observed for BUD8 mutants, except when BUD8 is completely deleted together with BUD9 resulting in >90% of randomly budding cells (Taheri et al., 2000
173-325, BUD8
268-325, and BUD8
268-417 in haploid strains also caused a significant increase in cells with a random budding pattern, whereas all other BUD8 mutations did not affect haploid budding (Table 3). Thus, these variants of Bud8p might cause random budding by interfering with downstream components required for bud site selection programs of both haploids and diploids.
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8-48 or BUD9
8-130 allele that encode Bud9p versions with truncations at the N terminus. These strains established a bipolar budding pattern, and they did not significantly differ from control strains expressing the wild-type BUD9 gene or a myc-tagged version of BUD9 (Figure 3 and Table 3). Thus, similar to Bud8p, the N-terminal part of Bud9p (residues 8-130) is not required for establishment of the bipolar budding pattern. A second class included seven mutants carrying either the BUD9
91-218, BUD9
168-218, BUD9
168-283, BUD9
323-450, BUD9
406-450, BUD9
406-544, or BUD9
460-544 allele. In these mutants, the distal cell pole was selected for budding with a high frequency similar to strains carrying a full deletion of BUD9. Thus, similar as in the case of Bud8p, two segments of Bud9p (one segment residing in the N-terminal half and the second segment encompassing the C-terminal region) seem to be indispensable for control of the bud site selection program by the protein. A third class of mutants was defined by a single strain expressing BUD9
244-369, which developed a random budding pattern with a 4 to 5 times higher frequency than the control strain. This BUD9 allele was also found to be dominant when tested in heterozygous diploid strains, indicating that the encoded Bud9p proteins might interfere with regular execution of the bipolar budding program. In haploid strains, expression of the BUD9
244-369 did not significantly enhance random budding. Our data indicate that as for Bud8p, distinct domains of Bud9p are involved in controlling bud site selection.
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deletion strains did not produce signals that were sufficiently detectable by fluorescence microscopy, although the encoded fusion proteins were found to be functional when strains were assayed for budding patterns. Our previous studies have shown that expression of GFP-BUD8 at low levels is sufficient for functional complementation but not for visual detection (Taheri et al., 2000
strains led to three types of localization patterns (Figure 4). The full-length GFP-Bud8p and the four fusion proteins GFP-Bud8p
7-53, GFP-Bud8p
7-114, GFP-Bud8p
74-216, and GFP-Bud8p
468-505 produced a similar pattern and defined a first class. These proteins were localized on one side of unbudded cells. In small- and large-budded cells, these variants occurred at the tip of daughters and at the mother side of the bud neck (Figure 4, A–D, I, and K). These findings suggest that the N-terminal part of Bud8p does not carry signals for correct delivery of the protein to the distal cell pole. A second type of localization pattern was defined by GFP-Bud8p
173-325, GFP-Bud8p
268-325, and GFP-Bud8p
268-417 that contain truncations in the median segment of Bud8p (Figure 4, E–G). These proteins were evenly distributed at the cell periphery, and they seemed to produce enhanced cytoplasmic staining, indicating that the median part of Bud8p might be required for either delivery of the proteins to polar positions or for polar maintenance after delivery. A third type of localization pattern was defined by the GFP-BUD8
375-505 and GFP-BUD8
513-600 fusion genes, which code for variants of Bud8p that lack the predicted C-terminal transmembrane domains or the regions immediately preceding the transmembrane (TM) domains (Figures 4, H, J, and K). These proteins seemed to be enriched in the cytoplasm, which was corroborated by crude cell fractionation of corresponding myc-epitope tagged variants showing decreased association with the plasma membrane (Figure 6). However, a significant amount of these proteins occurred as patches at the mother-daughter neck region and as dot-like structures along the cell periphery of mother and daughter cells (Figure 4), and they were still found to be associated with the plasma membrane (Figure 6). These data indicate that the C-terminal part of Bud8p is partially, but not exclusively, required for polar localization and membrane association.
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Localization of Bud9p Proteins
Localization analysis of Bud9p mutant proteins was performed by using YFP-fusion proteins. We found that for Bud9p, expression of YFP-fusion proteins produced a considerably higher percentage of cells showing clearly detectable signals compared with GFP-fusions. YFP-BUD9 fusions genes were expressed from the endogenous BUD9 promoter in a bud9
strain, and the encoded YFP-Bud9p mutant proteins defined three different types of localization patterns. The full-length YFP-Bud9p control and four mutant proteins, YFP-Bud9p
8-48, YFP-Bud9p
8-130, YFP-Bud9p
91-218, and YFP-Bud9p
168-218, produced a similar localization pattern (Figure 5, A–E, and L). In unbudded cells, these proteins occurred as single patches at one or at both poles. In small-budded cells, these proteins were typically found at the tip of daughters and in mother cells at the pole opposite to the neck. In large-budded cells, proteins were found at the tip of daughters and in addition with high frequency at the mother-bud neck (see Discussion). All four Bud9p mutant proteins producing this type of localization pattern contain truncations in the N-terminal region, indicating that this part of the protein does not carry sequences that are essential for normal localization of Bud9p. A second type of localization pattern was defined by YFP-Bud9p
168-283 and YFP-Bud9p
244-369 that contain truncations in the median segment. These proteins produced highly enhanced cytoplasmic staining of cells, and polar localization was abolished (Figure 5, F, G, and L). Thus, segments lacking in these variants might be crucial for cell surface delivery. A third group of proteins included YFP-Bud9p
323-450, YFP-Bud9p
406-450, YFP-Bud9p
406-544, and YFP-Bud9p
460-544 that lack the C-terminal TM domains or sequences immediately preceding them. These proteins produced enhanced cytoplasmic staining, which in Bud9p
323-450 and Bud9p
460-544 was supported by crude cell fractionation (Figures 5, H–K, and L, and 6). However, as found for Bud8 variants lacking the C-terminal segments, a fraction of these proteins still localized to the cell periphery in form of a spot at the cells tips, and was still associated with the membrane. Thus, similar to Bud8p, the C-terminal sequences of Bud9p including the two predicted TM domains are partially, but not exclusively, required for association of the protein with the cell periphery.
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Interaction of Bud8p and Bud9p Proteins with Bud5p and Rax1p
We further assessed putative functions of different segments of Bud8p and Bud9p by measuring physical interactions with Bud5p and Rax1p. For this purpose, we copurified Bud8p and Bud9p mutant proteins along with either GST-Bud5p or GST-Rax1p as described previously (Kang et al., 2004a
,b
). As expected, full-length Bud8p could be copurified with GST-Bud5p (Figure 7A), but not with a variant of Bud5p lacking the N-terminal 70 amino acids (data not shown). Analysis of different Bud8p mutant proteins revealed that Bud8p
74-216 and Bud8p
375-505 could not be copurified with GST-Bud5p, indicating that segments deleted in these variants potentially contain sequences that confer interaction with Bud5p.
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1-70 (Figure 7C) and that binding does not require Bud8p (Figure 7C). These results indicate that the N-terminal part of Bud5p is responsible for interaction not only with Bud8p but also with Bud9p and that Bud8p and Bud9p seem to interact with Bud5p independently of each other. Analysis of deletion variants of Bud9p revealed that interaction with GST-Bud5p was abolished in Bud9p
91-218 and Bud9p
168-283 and that it was reduced in Bud9p
323-450 and Bud9p
406-450 (Figure 7B), indicating that the deleted segments might confer association with Bud5p. Although we anticipated that interactions observed between Bud5p and Bud8p or Bud9p are established within living cells, we tested whether interaction between these proteins might also occur after lysis of the cells. Therefore, we performed postlysis binding experiments by mixing a protein extract prepared from a strain only expressing GST-Bud5p with extracts from strains expressing different epitope-tagged variants of Bud8p or Bud9p. These experiments revealed no physical interactions between Bud5p and Bud8p or Bud9p (Figure 7D), indicating that physical associations observed with strains coexpressing the binding partners reflect interaction of the proteins in vivo.
It has been shown that Bud8p and Bud9p influence the localization of Bud5p in living cells (Kang et al., 2001
). We therefore investigated, whether the N-terminal segments identified in Bud8p and Bud9p to be required for physical association with GST-Bud5p would also be involved in localization of Bud5p-GFP in living cells. For this purpose, we constructed diploid strains chromosomally expressing BUD5-GFP instead of the endogenous BUD5 and carrying full deletions of either BUD8 or BUD9 or expressing the BUD8
74-216 or BUD9
91-218 variants lacking putative Bud5p interaction domains. Although these strains produced only weak Bud5p-GFP signals, specific patterns of localization could be observed. Similar to previous studies, Bud5p-GFP was found at the tip of unbudded cells and at the bud tip, bud neck, or both of large-budded cells (Figure 8). The overall pattern seemed not to be dependent on Bud8p or Bud9p. However, we found that absence of Bud8 led to a reduction of large-budded cells with Bud5-GFP being localized at the bud tip. A similar decrease was found in cells expressing BUD8
74-216, but not in cells lacking BUD9. Vice versa, either full deletion of BUD9 or deletion of the BUD9 segment for residues 91-218 caused a reduction of large-budded cells having Bud5p-GFP localized at the bud neck. Thus, the Bud8p segment 74-216 and the Bud9 segment 91-218 are not only required for interaction with GST-Bud5p but also seem to affect localization of Bud5p-GFP in living cells.
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168-283, Bud9p
323-450, and Bud9p
460-544, and it was clearly reduced in Bud8p
7-53, Bud8p
7-114, Bud8p
375-505, and Bud8p
513-600 (Figure 9, A and B). These experiments identify potential Rax1p interaction domains in Bud8p and Bud9p, and they suggest that these domains in general are not identical to the potential Bud5p binding sites found in the cortical tags.
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| DISCUSSION |
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1287b strain background to analyze the localization of Bud9p. In a previous study in this genetic background, we observed GFP-Bud9p predominantly at the tips of small- and large-budded daughters and only rarely at the mother-bud neck of large-budded cells (Taheri et al., 2000
1287b strain background and enabled us to observe the protein with much higher frequency (up to 40% of stained cells) at the proximal pole of unbudded cells and at the mother-bud neck of large-budded cells. This localization pattern of Bud9p in the
1287b strain background is in much better agreement with the pattern observed in the other strain background and is more consistent with the idea of Bud9p being a cortical tag for the proximal pole. Thus, our experiments using YFP-Bud9p constructs seem to be sufficiently suited to identify putative localization signals in Bud9p, even though we do not know the reason for the additional tip localization of Bud9p we routinely observe in the
1287b background.
An important finding of our study is that Bud9p interacts with Bud5p as has been demonstrated in Bud8p (Kang et al., 2004b
). We have previously found that Bud8p can physically interact with Bud9p (Taheri et al., 2000
). However, Bud8p and Bud9p seem to interact with Bud5p independently of each other, because we found that Bud8p is not required for Bud9p to associate with Bud5p. We further found that the N-terminal part of Bud5p that is required for interaction with Bud8p (Kang et al., 2004b
) is also required for interaction with Bud9p. This finding is in good agreement with the fact that deletion of the N-terminal region of Bud5p is sufficient to cause random budding (Kang et al., 2004b
). An important question is whether Bud8p and Bud9p contain similar segments to contact Bud5p. Among the most informative variants of Bud8p and Bud9p that we uncovered are Bud8p
74-216 and Bud9p
91-218 that in vivo are nonfunctional. In both cases, deletions specifically affect interaction with Bud5p, but not the polar localization of the proteins or interaction with Rax1p (Table 4 and Figure 10A). This suggests that the N-terminal regions of Bud8p and Bud9p might contain a domain that mediates interaction with Bud5p to activate the general bud site selection machinery. We noticed that these regions of Bud8p and of Bud9p carry a similar stretch of
30 amino acids (Figure 10A). Whether and how these stretches that share >40% identical amino acids confer interaction with Bud5p remains to be determined. However, these putative Bud5p interaction domains are likely to reside in the extracellular space, because the N-terminal regions of Bud8p and Bud9p carry several conserved N- and O-glycosylation sites and because Bud8p and Bud9p are glycosylated in vivo (Harkins et al., 2001
). Thus, our data indicate that additional factors might exist, which confer interaction of these extracellular portions of Bud8p and Bud9p with the N-terminal part of the cytoplasmically localized Bud5p (Figure 10B). Our data do not support Rax1p to fulfill this function, because these putative extracellular Bud5p-interacting segments of Bud8p and Bud9p are not required for Rax1p interaction. Thus, identification of such probably transmembrane proteins must be further addressed in future work.
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It has been suggested that Bud8p and Bud9p are delivered to the cell surface in vesicles of the secretory system (Schenkman et al., 2002
). However, classical N-terminal signal sequences are absent in Bud8p and Bud9p, suggesting that other parts of the proteins must confer entry into the secretory pathway. In agreement with this notion, we found that the N-terminal portions of Bud8p (residues 7-216) and of Bud9p (residues 8-218) are not required for polar localization and functionality of the proteins. We further found that most of the deletion variants produced one or several higher-molecular-weight bands in denaturing gels, indicating that these proteins are glycosylated and that they are transported through the secretory pathway. The only exceptions were the Bud8p
375-505 and Bud9p
168-283 variants that produced only one major band and that were found to be nonfunctional, indicating that these variants might not be glycosylated and therefore might lack important secretion signals. However, whether and how exactly these portions of Bud8p and Bud9p affect entry, transport, or both through the secretory system needs to be investigated in more detailed studies. In addition, future studies must reveal the exact function of glycosylation of the bipolar landmarks by, for example, mutational analysis of the numerous conserved N- and O-glycosylation sites present in the N-terminal portion of the proteins (Harkins et al., 2001
).
A further novel finding of this study is the uncovering of dominant inactive versions of BUD8 and BUD9 that lack the median part and that cause increased random budding. In Bud8p, the encoded mutant proteins are uniformly localized at the cell surface, indicating that they are either randomly delivered to the plasma membrane, freely diffuse in the membrane after polar delivery, or are randomly endocytosed. Our data do not allow distinguishing between these possibilities, but they suggest that the median part of Bud8p does not carry sequences essential for cell surface delivery. In addition, the median part does not seem to confer interaction with the general budding machinery, because deletions within this segment do not block interaction with Bud5p. Instead, these mutations cause dominant random budding, which might be caused by the uniformed distribution of mutant proteins on the plasma membrane making all cell cortexes competent for Bud5p binding and budding. In the case of Bud9p, deletions in the median part of the protein (
168-283 and
244-369) caused Bud9p to become enriched in the cytoplasm but not on the cell surface. The
168-283 deletion also abolishes interaction with Bud5p and Rax1p, which could be explained by the cytoplasmic localization of this variant (see discussion above). The
244-369 deletion mutant was also enriched in the cytoplasm, but it seems to be partially functional, as bipolar budding was observed in
50% of mutant cells and as this variant was still competent for binding to Bud5p and Rax1p. Thus, in the case of Bud8p the median segments could be responsible for polar anchoring of the protein after surface delivery, whereas the median part of Bud9p seems to be involved in transport to the cell surface. Although our analysis of Bud8p and Bud9p variants lacking the median parts indicates an important role of these domains in either cell surface transport or polar anchoring, future detailed transport and localization studies are required to resolve these issues in greater detail.
Finally, our study has uncovered several Bud8p and Bud9p mutants defective for interaction with the cortical tag protein Rax1p. In Bud8p, we uncovered sequences in the N-terminal (
7-53 and
7-114) and the C-terminal (
375-505 and
513-600) parts that are required for efficient Rax1 binding (Figure 10A). In the C-terminal deletions, loss of Rax1p binding might be due to cytoplasmic mislocalization of the proteins. However, variants lacking N-terminal sequences are normally localized, suggesting that loss of Rax1p binding is not caused by mislocalization. Interestingly, these variants are fully functional with respect to bud site selection, indicating that the Bud8p-Rax1p interaction is not essential for functionality or polar localization of Bud8p, a conclusion that is in agreement with the previous finding that GFP-Bud8p localization does not depend on Rax1p (Kang et al., 2004a
). Thus, although it is interesting to note that the N-terminal region of Bud8p might have a specific function in Rax1p binding, the role of the Bud8p-Rax1p interaction remains elusive. In Bud9p, is has been shown that deletion of Rax1p causes Bud9p to be mislocalized (Kang et al., 2004a
). Here, we observed a correlation between transport of the protein to the cell surface and Rax1p binding, because the three mutations that strongly affect Rax1p binding (
168-283,
323-450, and
460-544) also induce cytoplasmic staining of Bud9p. In all cases, cytoplasmic localization might prevent interaction of the proteins with Rax1p. Thus, although our study has not identified a specific Rax1p-binding domain in Bud9p, it suggests that interaction of Bud9p and Rax1p depends on regular transport of these transmembrane glycoproteins to the cell surface.
In conclusion, our study has identified domains within Bud8p and Bud9p that seem to be involved in delivery of the proteins to the cell surface and to polar sites that are likely to confer interaction with components of the general budding machinery and that seem to mediate interaction with other components of the bipolar landmarks. As such, the study aids in extending our still limited knowledge on the structure and function of these cortical tag proteins and helps to better understand how these transmembrane glycoproteins participate in spatial control of cell division.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| Footnotes |
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The online version of this article contains supplemental material at MBC Online (http://www.molbiolcell.org). ![]()
Present address: Department of Molecular Genetics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210-1292. ![]()
Address correspondence to: Hans-Ulrich Mösch (moesch{at}staff.uni-marburg.de).
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