Cell polarity is the ultimate manifestation of the complex mechanisms that establish and maintain functionally specialized domains within the plasma membrane and cytoplasm. The asymmetric organization of the cytoskeleton, secretory pathway, and plasma membrane along an appropriate axis is established by specific proteins assembling a polarized and specialized cortical actin cytoskeleton (for review, see
Drubin and Nelson, 1996 
). Polarized actin networks then mediate sorting and delivery of factors required to execute and maintain cell polarity.
The budding yeast
Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an excellent model system to study the regulation of cell and cytoskeletal polarity (for reviews, see
Pringle et al., 1995 
;
Drubin and Nelson, 1996 
). During
S. cerevisiae budding, the rigid cell wall is expanded locally as a result of polarized secretion. Cell surface extensions are preceded by the polarized organization of actin filament-containing structures, including actin cortical patches and actin cables. Cortical actin patches, small foci of actin filaments and associated proteins, cluster near regions of growth (for review, see
Pruyne and Bretscher, 2000 
). These structures are required during endocytosis for internalization (for reviews, see
Geli and Riezman, 1998 
;
Wendland et al., 1998 
). Actin cables, bundles of actin filaments arising from discrete regions of the plasma membrane coincident with growth sites, extend throughout the cell. These dynamic cables guide the polarized movements of a type V myosin, Myo2p, to deliver secretory vesicles (
Govindan et al., 1995 
;
Schott et al., 1999 
).
Myo3p and Myo5p,
S. cerevisiae type I myosins, are components of cortical patches aiding in the assembly of cortical actin patches. We isolated
CDC50 as a multicopy suppressor of the temperature-sensitive
myo3Δ
myo5-360 mutant (
Misu et al., 2003 
). The
cdc50Δ mutant displays cold-sensitive cell cycle arrest with small buds. Arrested
cdc50Δ cells are large and round, exhibiting depolarization of cortical actin patches and defects in the formation of actin cables. In addition, polarity regulators, Bni1p and Gic1p, are mislocalized in the
cdc50Δ mutant cells. Bni1p, a component of the 12S polarisome, is a yeast counterpart of mammalian formin and is capable of polymerizing actin (
Evangelista et al., 1997 
;
Evangelista et al., 2002 
;
Sagot et al., 2002 
). Gic1p is a downstream effector of the Cdc42p small GTPase, physically and functionally interacting with 12S polarisome components (
Brown et al., 1997 
;
Chen et al., 1997 
;
Jaquenoud and Peter, 2000 
).
Cdc50p, a conserved integral membrane-spanning protein, is localized primarily to late endosomal/prevacuolar compartments, raising the question of how
CDC50 controls the localization of polarity regulators. Mutations of
LEM3/
ROS3, encoding a protein homologous to Cdc50p, confer hypersensitivity to a phosphatidylethanolamine-binding peptide antibiotic, Ro09-0198 (
Kato et al., 2002 
). Interestingly, a mutant of
LEM3 also displays marked decreases in internalization of fluorescently 7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4-yl (NBD)-labeled analogs of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and phosphatidylcholine (PC), but not of phosphatidylserine (PS) (
Kato et al., 2002 
;
Hanson et al., 2003 
). Lem3p is primarily localized to the plasma membrane, suggesting its involvement in the translocation of phospholipids across the plasma membrane.
The role of specific changes in phospholipid composition of intracellular or plasma membranes in the regulation of development or the maintenance of cell polarity remains unknown. Most cell types display an asymmetric distribution of phospholipids across the plasma membrane (
Devaux, 1991 
;
Cerbon and Calderon, 1991 
;
Diaz and Schroit, 1996 
). In general, aminophospholipids PS and PE are enriched in the inner leaflet facing the cytoplasm, whereas PC, sphingomyelin, and glycolipids are predominantly found in the outer leaflet of the plasma membrane. In the human erythrocyte membrane, 80% of total PE and most of PS are found in the inner leaflet, whereas 76 and 82% of total PC and sphingomyelin are found in the outer leaflet, respectively (
Rothman and Lenard, 1977 
). Similarly, in the budding yeast plasma membrane, 85 and 90% of total PE and PS are found in the inner leaflet, respectively (
Cerbon and Calderon, 1991 
). Loss of this asymmetric distribution triggers a variety of intercellular events. Cell surface exposure of PS promotes platelet activation (
Rosing et al., 1980 
) and acts as a signal for the recognition and removal of apoptotic cells by macrophages (
Fadok et al., 2000 
). Lipid asymmetry is generated and maintained by ATP-driven lipid transporters or translocases (
Devaux, 1991 
), a prime candidate aminophospholipid translocase (APT) of which is ATPase II (Zachowski
et al., 1989). Molecular cloning of the ATPase II-encoding gene from bovine chromaffin granules revealed it as a member of a previously unrecognized subfamily of P-type ATPases (
Tang et al., 1996 
). Members of this subfamily differ from cation-transporting P-type ATPases because they lack the negatively charged amino acids within the transmembrane segments critical for cation transport.
Of the five members of this subfamily in
S. cerevisiae, DRS2, NEO1, DNF1, DNF2, and
DNF3 (
Hua et al., 2002 
), the functions of Drs2p are the best characterized.
DRS2 was identified as a mutation that is synthetically lethal with a mutation in
ARF1, which encodes an ADP-ribosylation factor (
ARF) (
Chen et al., 1999 
).
ARF is a small GTPase involved in initiating the formation of COPI and clathrin-coated vesicles (CCVs). Drs2p is localized to the
trans-Golgi network (TGN). The
drs2Δ mutant exhibits TGN defects comparable with those exhibited by strains with clathrin mutations (
Chen et al., 1999 
). The
drs2Δ mutant also exhibits a defect in APT activity at the plasma membrane (
Tang et al., 1996 
), although this result remains in dispute (
Siegmund et al., 1998 
;
Marx et al., 1999 
). The lack of detectable differences in APT activity in
drs2Δ mutant cells may be due to Drs2p localization to the TGN. In contrast, loss of Dnf1p and Dnf2p abolishes the ATP-dependent transport of NBD-labeled PE, PC, and PS across the plasma membrane (
Pomorski et al., 2003 
). Because Dnf1p and Dnf2p are localized to the plasma membrane, these proteins are likely the P-type ATPases responsible for the translocation of phospholipids at the plasma membrane.
Because Lem3p and Cdc50p are not structurally related to ATPases, it remains unclear whether Lem3p possesses an APT activity, or functions in conjunction with a P-type ATPase or another APT. Here, we show that the cdc50Δ and drs2Δ mutants show similar phenotypes, including cold-sensitive growth, depolarization of cortical actin patches and mislocalization of polarity regulators. Although the lem3Δ or dnf1Δ mutation does not affect cell growth, they show synthetic lethal interaction with cdc50Δ and drs2Δ mutations. Coimmunoprecipitation experiments also demonstrate that Cdc50p and Lem3p associate with Drs2p and Dnf1p, respectively. Cdc50p and Lem3p also are required for proper localization of Drs2p and Dnf1p, respectively. We therefore propose that the Cdc50p/Lem3p family comprises a set of subunits specific to phospholipid-translocating P-type ATPases.