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Vol. 19, Issue 7, 3040-3051, July 2008
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Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, LA 71130
Submitted February 7, 2008;
Revised April 30, 2008;
Accepted May 5, 2008
Monitoring Editor: Daniel Lew
| ABSTRACT |
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mutant, indicating that the C-terminus of Bni4 is necessary and sufficient to target Glc7 and CSIII to the bud neck. A Cdc10-Glc7 chimera fails to target CSIII to the bud neck but is functional in the presence of the C-terminal Glc7-binding domain of Bni4. The conserved C-terminal PP1-binding domain of mammalian Phactr-1 can functionally substitute for the C-terminus of Bni4. These results suggest that the essential role of Bni4 is to target Glc7 to the neck and activate it toward substrates necessary for CSIII recruitment and synthesis of chitin at the bud neck. | INTRODUCTION |
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Targeted CSIII activity at the site of bud emergence also requires Bni4, a 100-kDa protein that has been proposed to act as a scaffold to tether Chs4 to septin filaments (DeMarini et al., 1997
). Like Chs3 and Chs4, Bni4 localizes as a ring to the presumptive bud site and remains asymmetrically restricted to the mother side of the bud neck. However, Bni4 remains at the bud neck throughout the cell cycle until just before cytokinesis, when its levels drop. BNI4 null mutants fail to target CSIII to the neck early in the cell cycle, resulting in poorly defined bud scars (DeMarini et al., 1997
; Kozubowski et al., 2003
). Bni4 also binds to the protein phosphatase type 1 (PP1) catalytic subunit, Glc7. Yeast cells containing a mutation of a conserved PP1/Glc7-binding motif near the C-terminus of Bni4 (Bni4V831A/F833A, hereafter referred to as Bni4VA/FA) do not recruit Glc7 or CSIII to the bud neck and exhibit chitin staining similar to bni4
mutants (Kozubowski et al., 2003
). Hyperphosphorylation of Bni4VA/FA and its reduced abundance at the neck led to the proposal that Glc7 is necessary for regulating the association of Bni4 with the septin ring (Kozubowski et al., 2003
). However, a more direct role for the phosphatase in CSIII targeting has not been ruled out. Here, we present new data indicating a direct role for Glc7 in recruiting the chitin synthase machinery to the bud neck and propose that the role of Bni4 at the bud neck is not as a tether for CSIII, but rather to target Glc7 to the septin ring and activate it toward one or more substrates necessary to recruit active CSIII.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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::NatMX4, the deletion cassette was amplified using DNA from the bni4
strain from the Research Genetics panel (Open Biosystems, Huntsville, AL) with primers SP5-F and SP6-R. Nourseothricin (Nat)-resistant strains were then created by digesting pAG25 (Goldstein and McCusker, 1999
::HIS3 allele was derived from backcrosses of DDY181 (DeMarini et al., 1997
863-892-13Myc, bni4
873-892-13Myc, and bni4
882-892-13Myc, respectively, using pFA6a-13Myc-HIS3MX6 (Longtine et al., 1998
863-892-GFP and bni4
873-892-GFP were made by amplifying pLK3 (Kozubowski et al., 2003
Plasmid Construction and Site-directed Mutagenesis
Plasmids are listed in Table 1. Standard techniques were used for DNA manipulation (Maniatis et al., 1989
). Restriction and modification enzymes were used as recommended by the manufacturers (Promega, Madison, WI; Fermentas, Glen Burnie, MD; and New England Biolabs, Ipswich, MA). To create pJAS14, primers CAT78-F and CAT79-R were used to amplify BNI4 with NcoI ends from KT1357 (MATa leu2 his3 ura3 trp1) (Bloecher and Tatchell, 2000
) genomic DNA. The BNI4 fragment was inserted into pGEM-T according to the manufacturer's protocol (Promega, Madison, WI). pLK10 (Kozubowski et al., 2003
) was digested with Bpu10I and religated to remove a portion of the KAN cassette to create pJL2. The BNI4 variants were generated using the QuikChange kit (Stratagene, La Jolla, CA) with pJAS14 as the template. These mutations were transferred into yeast transformation vectors (pLK10, pJL2, or p366; DeMarini et al., 1997
) by either homologous recombination in yeast or by conventional subcloning. Homologous recombination was performed by cotransforming yeast with mutagenized pJAS14 cut with NcoI and either AatII/NheI-digested pLK10, pJL2 (for GFP-tagging), or AatII/NheI-digested p366. The recombined plasmids were recovered from yeast with the Zymoprep Yeast Plasmid Miniprep kit from Zymo Research (Orange, CA). To transfer the bni4 mutations to yeast transformation vectors by subcloning, mutagenized pJAS14 was digested with AatII/NheI or AatII/Bsp68I and ligated to AatII/NheI or AatII/Bsp68I cut pJL2 (for GFP-tagging) and p366. To create integrating vectors containing the mutagenized bni4 sequence, the pJL2-, pLK10-, and p366-based plasmids were digested with XhoI/SpeI and ligated into XhoI/SpeI cut pRS306 (Sikorksi and Hieter, 1989
). To create a GFP-CHS4 integrating vector, EcoRI-digested pAR24 (Kozubowski et al., 2003
) was ligated into EcoRI cut pRS306 to create pJL68. CDC10-BNI4, CDC10-bni4VA/FA, CDC10, bni4(823-892), and bni4(823-892 V831A/F833A) Gal-inducible plasmids were made by nested PCR amplification of genomic DNA from KT1112 or JRL708. For CDC10-BNI4 and CDC10-bni4VA/FA, the first reactions used primer pairs SP121-F/SP116-R and SP117-F/SP122-R. The products were combined for the second PCR reaction with primers SP121-F and SP122-R. For CDC10, primers SP121-F and SP131-R were used in a one-step PCR reaction. For CDC10-GLC7, primers SP121-F/CZ4-R and CZ5-F/CZ6-R were used for the first PCR reaction with plasmid pKC980 (Karen Clemens and John Cannon, unpublished data) as the template. The two PCR products were combined and SP121-F and CZ6-R were used for the second PCR reaction. For bni4(823-892) and bni4(823-892 V831A/F833A), primers SP138-F and SP122-R were used in a one-step PCR reaction. For CDC10-PHACTR-1, p40c1 (kindly provided by Dr. Patrick Allen, Yale University) was used as a template with primers SP121-F/SP133-R and SP132-F/SP134-R for the first reaction, and primers SP121-F and SP134-R were used for the second reaction. The final PCR products were then ligated into pGEM-T according to the manufacturer's protocol (Promega, Madison, WI), creating pJL149 (CDC10-BNI4), pJL168 (CDC10), pJL169 (CDC10-bni4VA/FA), pCZ6 (CDC10-GLC7), pJL179 (CDC10-PHACTR-1), pJL199 (bni4(823–892)), and pJL202 (bni4(823-892 V831A/F833A)). The forward and reverse primers introduced a SacI site before the Start codon and a SpeI restriction site after the Stop codon. pJL151, pJL170, pJL171, pJL181, pJl200, and pJL203 were created by ligating SacI/SpeI fragments from pJL149, pJL168, pJL169, pC76, pJL179, pJL199, and pJL202, respectively, into YCpIF16 (Foreman and Davis, 1994
). A fragment from pJL200 and pJL203 containing the GAL1 promotor was ligated as a ApaI/SacI fragment into pUN105 (Elledge and Davis, 1988
) to create pJL201 and pJL204, respectively.
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To test for coimmunoprecipitation of Glc7-13myc and Bni4-GFP, cells were harvested and lysed as described in Kozubowski et al. (2003)
. Lysates were then subsequently used with the ProFound c-Myc Tag IP/CoIP Application Set according to the manufacturer's instructions (Pierce, Rockford, IL). After adding 2x sample buffer to the beads, 2 µl β-mercaptoethanol was added, and beads were heated to 100°C for 5 min. Samples were eluted from the columns and electrophoresed on an 8% polyacrylamide-SDS gel. Immunoblot analysis was performed as described above using anti-GFP (JL-8) antibody or anti-Myc 9E10 ascites antibody with subsequent detection using the Enhanced Chemiluminescence System.
Microscopy
Cells were placed onto a pad of 2% agarose in synthetic medium containing 2% glucose or 2% galactose and imaged for GFP, CFP, YFP, and RFP (green, cyan, yellow, and red fluorescent protein, respectively) as previously described (Kozubowski et al., 2003
). Fluorescence images in different Z-axis planes (0.5 µm apart) were acquired using Slidebook software (Olympus Imaging Systems, Melville, NY). Fluorescence levels were quantitated as previously described (Kozubowski et al., 2003
) using the average of four adjacent pixels and subtracting background fluorescence from the cytoplasm. Calcofluor staining was done as described previously (Robinson et al., 1999
). Images of Calcofluor staining are projections of 20 planes through the Z-axis.
| RESULTS |
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All mutant Bni4 alleles, summarized in Table 2 and diagrammed in Figure 1A, were integrated into the genome and expressed from the BNI4 promoter. The mutant alleles were also integrated as GFP fusions to assay expression and localization. The C-terminal GFP-tag on Bni4 was previously shown not to disturb Bni4 function (Kozubowski et al., 2003
). Immunoblot analysis of whole cell extracts revealed that all mutant proteins are stably expressed, although levels varied. For example, Bni4
499-509 and Bni4
524-536 accumulate to relatively higher and lower levels, respectively (Figure 1B). We assayed Bni4 protein levels at the necks of small-budded cells by fluorescence microscopy. A summary of the results is shown in Figure 1C and the quantitation of Bni4-GFP levels in all variants is listed in Table 2. Most of the mutations either reduced or eliminated Bni4-GFP accumulation at the neck; only Bni4
499-509 associated with the neck at higher levels. Increased expression of this variant could explain the increased levels at the neck. Two variants, Bni4
286-302 and Bni4
654-667, did not accumulate at the bud neck. Bni4VA/FA was previously reported to accumulate at low levels at the bud neck (Kozubowski et al., 2003
). We confirmed this result and found that C-terminal truncations of the Glc7-binding domain (Bni4
863-892 and Bni4
873-892) also caused accumulation to low levels at the neck, consistent with the hypothesis that Glc7-binding is required for retention of Bni4 at the neck (Kozubowski et al., 2003
).
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89-101 accumulate low levels of Bni4 at the neck and target low levels of Glc7-mCitrine to the neck (Figure 1D). Similarly, Bni4
654-667 fails to associate with the neck and cells bearing this mutant fail to target Glc7-mCitrine to the neck. Glc7-mCitrine also was not observed at the neck in most of the Glc7-binding domain mutants (bni4VA/FA, bni4
863-892, or bni4
873-892). The mutant with the smallest C-terminal truncation (bni4
882-892) had a low but visible level of Glc7-mCitrine at the neck (Figure 1D).
We used several assays to assess the ability of the Bni4 variants to target CSIII to the bud neck. First, we assayed for rings of GFP-Chs4 and Chs3-mCitrine at the neck in the bni4 mutants. Strains containing the integrated GFP-CHS4 fusion gene formed normal bud scars, indicating that the gene fusion is functional. Chs4 associates with the neck at cytokinesis independently of Bni4 (Kozubowski et al., 2003
; Sanz et al., 2004
); therefore we only quantitated GFP-Chs4 levels at the bud neck in small-budded cells. In general, GFP-Chs4 levels in the bni4 mutants correlate with the ability of the Bni4 variants to target Glc7 to the bud neck (Figure 2A). GFP-Chs4 did not localize to the bud neck in bni4
, bni4VA/FA, or bni4
863-892 mutants. Levels of GFP-Chs4 were only slightly above background in bni4
873-892 and bni4
286-302 mutants and were
40% of wild-type levels in bni4
882-892 mutants. Interestingly, the level of GFP-Chs4 at the bud neck in bni4
89-101 mutant cells was 60% of that in wild-type cells, even though Bni4
89-101-GFP accumulated to the neck at low levels (
10%), similar to the levels of mutants in the Glc7-binding domain. This result suggests that the failure of Bni4VA/FA and other C-terminal variants to target CSIII is not simply due to their failure to associate properly with the bud neck.
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654-667 mutant cells, even though this variant does not localize to the bud neck (Figure 2A). This variant behaves opposite to bni4VA/FA, which accumulates at the bud neck, albeit at low levels, but does not recruit Chs4. One major difference between bni4
654-667 and bni4VA/FA is that the former still contains the Glc7-binding region. To test if bni4
654-667 can bind Glc7, we immunoprecipitated Glc7-13Myc and probed for the presence of Bni4. As shown in Figure 2B, Glc7–13Myc associates with Bni4-GFP, Bni4
89-101-GFP, and Bni4
654-667-GFP, but not Bni4VA/FA-GFP, or Bni4
863-892-GFP. Thus, it is possible that Glc7 is targeted to the neck in the presence of Bni4
654-667-GFP at levels below our limit of detection and this complex may have some activity capable of directing GFP-Chs4 to the bud neck.
We next assayed whether the Bni4 variants can recruit Chs3-mCitrine to the bud neck. Most of the cellular Chs3 is in an endosomal compartment, the chitosome (reviewed in Bartnicki-Garcia, 2006
), but a portion of the protein is targeted to the bud neck in a Bni4- and Chs4-dependent manner (Chuang and Schekman, 1996
; DeMarini et al., 1997
). To better visualize the targeting of Chs3-mCitrine above the background of chitosomal Chs3, we examined Chs3-mCitrine in larger diploid cells. In wild-type, bni4
89-101, and bni4
499-509 mutant cells, the Chs3-mCitrine ring is clearly observed above the background cytoplasmic fluorescence (Figure 2C). However, these rings are absent in bni4
, bni4
654-667, and bni4VA/FA mutant cells (Figure 2C). It is interesting that Bni4
654-667 targets some Chs4 but not Chs3 to the neck, a result not supported by the hypothesis that targeting of Chs4 leads to Chs3 targeting. We have no explanation for this observation, but it suggests to us the possibility that the Bni4-Glc7 complex plays a role in more than one step of the CSIII targeting process.
We also assayed whether the bni4 mutants properly direct chitin synthesis at the bud neck by examining chitin bud scars by fluorescence microscopy (Figure 2D). As previously shown, bni4VA/FA and bni4
cells have diffuse and irregular shaped bud scars that are difficult to detect by Calcofluor staining (DeMarini et al., 1997
; Kozubowski et al., 2003
). bni4
654-667, bni4
863-892, and bni4
873-892 mutant cells show bud scars like those of a bni4
mutant. In contrast, bni4
89-101 mutant cells exhibit wild-type bud scars. bni4
882-892 mutants have bud scars intermediate between those of the wild type and those of a bni4
mutant.
We tested the BNI4 mutants for synthetic genetic defects in combination with bni1
. bni4
, chs4
, and chs3
mutants are inviable in the absence of the formin protein Bni1 (Tong et al., 2001
), suggesting that bni1
mutants require targeted CSIII activity for viability. Because bni4
mutants retain near normal levels of CSIII activity and chitin but are specifically defective in targeting CSIII activity to the bud neck (Sanz et al., 2004
), the growth rate of bni4 bni1
mutants provides a sensitive indicator for Bni4 function. We therefore isolated the bni4 bni1
double mutants from diploid strains heterozygous for bni1
and each of our bni4 mutants. A summary of the growth properties of these mutants is presented in Table 2. bni1
mutants in combination with bni4
286-302, bni4
654-667, bni4VA/FA, bni4
863-892, or bni4
873-892 germinate but fail to grow into macroscopic colonies. All other double mutant pairs grow into colonies but some have noticeable growth defects. For example, bni1
bni4
882-892 mutants are slow growing at 30° and 37°C, and other double mutants grow slowly at 37°C (Table 2). Together, these results demonstrate a relationship between the ability of Bni4 to target Glc7 to the neck and CSIII targeting.
The Glc7-binding Domain of Bni4 Is Sufficient to Recruit CSIII to the Bud Neck
The above data indicate that the C-terminal Glc7-binding domain of Bni4 is essential for CSIII targeting. To test if this domain is sufficient, we constructed a protein fusion, hereafter referred to as Cdc10-Bni4, between the full-length Cdc10 septin and the 70 C-terminal amino acids of Bni4, which contain the Glc7-binding domain. As controls, we also constructed a Cdc10-Bni4 chimera that should not bind Glc7 (Cdc10-Bni4VA/FA) and Cdc10 alone in the same vector. The three alleles were placed under the transcriptional control of a galactose-inducible promoter in a CEN shuttle vector and tagged with the HA epitope at the N-terminus. Immunoblot analysis revealed that all three proteins were expressed at similar levels after 2 h of galactose induction (Figure 3A). The Cdc10-Bni4VA/FA fusion migrates slightly slower than does the Cdc10-Bni4 fusion, suggesting that the Bni4VA/FA portion of the chimera may be hyperphosphorylated, as is the full-length Bni4VA/FA protein (Kozubowski et al., 2003
). Cells expressing the CDC10-BNI4 gene fusion have elongated buds and grow slowly on galactose medium (Figure 3, B and C). Cells expressing Cdc10 or Cdc10-Bni4VA/FA show normal growth rates and normal morphology, indicating that the growth and morphological defects induced by CDC10-BNI4 expression are likely due to Glc7 at the bud neck. The CDC10 and CDC10-BNI4VA/FA chimeras complement the temperature sensitivity of the cdc10–1 mutant (Figure 3D), indicating these fusion proteins likely associate with the septin ring. The elongated bud phenotype also appears unrelated to aberrant chitin synthesis, as cells lacking CHS3 and expressing the CDC10-BNI4 fusion still become elongated (Figure 3B).
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strain to confirm the ability of Cdc10-Bni4 to target Glc7 to the septin ring. Glc7-tdimer2 rather than Glc7-mCitrine was used for these experiments because the former fusion protein accumulates at lower levels in the nucleus (Bharucha et al., 2008
We next tested the ability of the Cdc10-Bni4 chimera to recruit a functional CSIII complex to the bud neck. Induction of the Cdc10-Bni4 chimera, but not Cdc10-Bni4VA/FA, results in localization of GFP-Chs4 (Figure 4A) and Chs3-mCitrine (Figure 4B) to the neck of small-budded cells. The recruitment of GFP-Chs4 is abolished in a chs3
mutant (Figure 4A), indicating that Chs4 targeting in CDC10-BNI4 cells has the same requirement for Chs3 as in wild-type cells (DeMarini et al., 1997
). Interestingly, the temporal dynamics of GFP-Chs4 localization appeared similar in BNI4 and CDC10-BNI4 expressing cells. GFP-Chs4 normally appears at the neck at bud emergence and disappears before the disappearance of Bni4 (Kozubowski et al., 2003
). GFP-Chs4 reappears at cytokinesis independent of Bni4 function (Kozubowski et al., 2003
; Sanz et al., 2004
). In CDC10-BNI4 cells, GFP-Chs4 is present in small-budded cells and at cytokinesis but was absent from the neck in medium-budded cells (Figure 4C). Thus, Cdc10-Bni4 can target Chs4 to the neck but Chs4 disappearance is regulated independently of Cdc10-Bni4 and Glc7. Calcofluor staining of cells expressing Cdc10-Bni4 revealed normal chitin rings (Figure 4D), indicating that the Cdc10-Bni4 fusion is capable of targeting functional CSIII to the neck.
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strain. Unlike Cdc10-Bni4, the Cdc10-Glc7 fusion does not recruit GFP-Chs4 to the bud neck (Figure 5E, left panel), and Cdc10-Glc7 cells do not synthesize normal bud scars (Figure 5F, left panel). Cdc10-Glc7 recruits another Glc7-binding protein (Sds22-mCitrine) to the neck (data not shown), indicating that the fusion protein localizes to the neck and retains at least some of the normal activity of Glc7.
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286-302 mutant. The Bni4
286-302 variant does not localize to the bud neck and does not recruit GFP-Chs4 to the bud neck (Figure 1C and Table 2), but it retains the Glc7-binding domain. If the Bni4-Glc7 complex is required for CSIII recruitment, our hypothesis is that the Cdc10-Glc7 will bind Bni4
286-302, forming a Glc7 holoenzyme able to target CSIII to the neck. As shown in Figure 5D, the induction of Cdc10-Glc7 induces Bni4
286-302-GFP localization to the bud neck. As expected, Bni4
286-302-GFP is located on both sides of the bud neck throughout the cell cycle, corresponding to the location of Cdc10-Glc7. Induction of Cdc10-Glc7 in bni4
286-302 GFP-CHS4 cells results in GFP-Chs4 localization to the bud neck (Figure 5E) and visible chitin bud scars (Figure 5F). To determine if expression of the C-terminus of Bni4 alone could induce Cdc10-Glc7 to recruit CSIII to the neck, we expressed the C-terminus of Bni4 (aa 823–892) with an N-terminal HA epitope tag from a galactose-inducible promoter. Expression of this 12.5-kDa protein alone failed to target CSIII activity to the neck (data not shown). However, coexpression of Bni4(832-892) and Cdc10-Glc7 resulted in the targeting of GFP-Chs4 (Figure 5G) and Chs3-mCitrine (Figure 5H) to small-budded cells and the formation of normal bud scars (Figure 5I). Coexpression of Cdc10-Glc7 with the VA/FA variant of Bni4(832-892) failed to target CSIII components to the neck (Figure 5, G–I). Together, these results suggest that Bni4 not only recruits Glc7 to the neck but also alters its specificity toward those substrate(s) at the bud neck required for proper chitin deposition.
The C-Terminus of Mammalian Phactr-1 Can Functionally Replace Bni4 at the Bud Neck
The recently characterized mammalian Phactr/Scapinin family of proteins (Sagara et al., 2003
; Allen et al., 2004
) contains a C-terminal PP1-binding domain that is 32% identical to the Glc7-binding domain of Bni4 (Figure 6A) but shares little, if any, similarity with the rest of Bni4. Proteins containing this C-terminal domain are found widely in eukaryotes (Sagara et al., 2003
) and in the yeast proteins Afr1 and Yer158c (DeMattei et al., 2000
). This domain in Afr1 is necessary to target Glc7 to mating projections and for their normal morphological development (J. Bharucha, J. R. Larson, J. B. Konopka, and K. Tatchell, unpublished data). Phactr (phosphatase and actin regulator) proteins bind actin and PP1 and are expressed most abundantly in the brain. Although not much is known about the physiological roles of the Phactr proteins, a mutation in the PP1-binding domain of Phactr4 is responsible for the serious defects in the early development of the CNS in the humdy mouse mutant (Kim et al., 2007
). To determine if the PP1-binding domain of Phactr/Scapinin is functionally conserved, we created a fusion protein containing the C-terminal PP1-binding region of rat Phactr-1 (amino acids 501–580) and Cdc10 (Cdc10-Phactr-1). The Cdc10-Phactr-1 fusion protein is expressed at levels similar to those of the other Cdc10 fusions (Figure 6B). Induction of Cdc10-Phactr-1 on galactose results in a greater reduction in growth rate than Cdc10-Bni4 (Figure 6D), but for unknown reasons, it has a relatively minor effect on morphology (Figure 6C). As with Cdc10-Bni4, cells expressing Cdc10-Phactr-1 accumulate Glc7-tdimer2 and GFP-Chs4 at the bud neck and show normal bud scars on their surfaces (Figure 6, E–G). Thus, the C-terminus of mammalian Phactr-1 can functionally substitute for Bni4 to recruit CSIII and Glc7 to the bud neck.
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| DISCUSSION |
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The surprising conclusion of our work is that the C-terminal 70-amino acid Glc7-binding domain of Bni4 is sufficient to target CSIII to the bud neck. What then is the role of the prior 822 amino acids? The most obvious possibility is that the remainder of the protein assures the proper temporal and spatial association of Bni4 with septin neck filaments. Bni4 binds asymmetrically to the septin ring before bud emergence and then only to the mother side of the neck during budding (Kozubowski et al., 2005
). Levels of Bni4 at the neck decline as the bud grows and at cytokinesis, little Bni4 is normally associated with the septin rings. Another possibility is that Bni4 has activities in addition to regulating CSIII. Gladfelter et al. (2005)
have evidence that Bni4 regulates septin functions, and we have noted that bni4
mutants have a more severe growth defect when combined with chs3
or chs4
(unpublished observations). This would not be predicted if Bni4 only regulates CSIII localization. Along similar lines, a bni4 deletion in Candida albicans leads to significantly reduced formation of hyphae, independent of chitin synthesis (Rowbottom et al., 2004
).
The sufficiency of the Glc7/PP1-binding domains of Bni4 and Phactr-1 for CSIII targeting provides important insights into the mechanism of CSIII recruitment to the bud neck. The evidence leads us to argue against a model in which Bni4 simply tethers Chs4 to the neck. Chs4 has been shown to bind Bni4 in two-hybrid studies (DeMarini et al., 1997
), but we have been unable to detect Chs4 in coimmunoprecipitation experiments with Bni4 (unpublished observations). Also, there is no simple correlation between Bni4 and Chs4 levels at the bud neck. Several variants, including Bni4
89-101, are present at low levels at the neck, presumably because of defects in septin binding, but these variants target Chs4 to the neck at near normal levels, whereas mutants defective in Glc7 binding are completely defective in CSIII targeting. Although the inability of the Cdc10-Bni4VA/FA fusion to target CSIII provides a strong argument that Glc7 plays a direct role in the process, it does not exclude the possibility that another component of CSIII also binds Cdc10-Bni4. However, this possibility is unlikely given that the C-terminus of Phactr-1 is only 32% identical to Bni4 but can target both Glc7 and CSIII to the neck.
The relevant substrates of Bni4-Glc7 are unknown but the ability of this complex to target CSIII to the bud neck suggests several possibilities. Chs3 and Chs4 could be targets of Bni4-Glc7. Both are phosphorylated (Valdivia and Schekman, 2003
; Ptacek et al., 2005
; Chi et al., 2007
), although there is no evidence that their phosphorylation is relevant to their activity or recruitment. Another possibility is that Bni4-Glc7 could directly participate in the fusion of Chs3 vesicles with the membrane at the bud neck. Phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of t-SNAREs play a critical role in membrane fusion (Elbert et al., 2005
; Weinberger et al., 2005
), and Glc7 is required for a late stage of homotypic vacuole fusion (Peters et al., 1999
; Bryant and James, 2003
) and transport vesicle fusion (Peters et al., 1999
; Bryant and James, 2003
). Components of the exocyst complex, Sec3 (Ficarro et al., 2002
; Chi et al., 2007
; Smolka et al., 2007
), Sec5 (Li et al., 2007
), Sec8 (Smolka et al., 2007
), Sec10 (Gruhler et al., 2005
; Li et al., 2007
), and Exo84 (Chi et al., 2007
; Smolka et al., 2007
), are also phosphorylated in vivo.
One prediction of our model is that Glc7 tethered directly to septins should also target CSIII to the bud neck. However, the Cdc10-Glc7 fusion protein does not recruit Chs4 or CSIII to the bud neck, even though it does cause altered bud morphology. Cdc10-Glc7 is able to recruit CSIII in strains containing Bni4
286-302, a variant that does not associate with the neck and normally has a null phenotype, or when coexpressed with just the C-terminal 70 a.a. of Bni4. On the basis of these results, we hypothesize that an important role of the Glc7 binding domain of Bni4 is to alter Glc7 substrate specificity. There is ample precedent for such a model. The MYPT1 subunit of myosin phosphatase activates PP1 toward myosin light chain and inhibits the activity toward glycogen synthase (Hartshorne et al., 2004
) by changing the conformation of the active site (Terrak et al., 2004
). It is unlikely that simply binding to an RVXF-containing protein is sufficient to activate Glc7 toward its appropriate substrates because a protein fusion between Cdc10 and the Glc7-binding domain of Gac1, a glycogen targeting subunit (François et al., 1992
; Stuart et al., 1994
) is unable to target CSIII to the bud neck (data not shown).
In summary, we propose that the primary role of Bni4 is to target Glc7 to the bud neck in a temporally and spatially restricted manner and to regulate its activity, allowing it to act on an as yet undefined substrate required to target CSIII to the neck. The observation that a PP1-binding domain from a Phactr/Scapinin protein can substitute for the Glc7-binding domain of Bni4 suggests that these vertebrate proteins may have a similar role in regulating PP1 activity.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| Footnotes |
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Present addresses: * Laboratory of Human Retrovirology, Clinical Services Program, Applied and Developmental Research Support Program, Science Application International Corporation (SAIC)-Frederick, National Cancer Institute at Frederick, Frederick, MD 21702; ![]()
Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003. ![]()
Address correspondence to: Kelly Tatchell (ktatch{at}lsuhsc.edu)
Abbreviations used: CSIII, chitin synthase III; PP1, protein phosphatase type 1.
| REFERENCES |
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