Background

Membrane trafficking involves the complex regulation of proteins and lipids intracellular localization and is required for metabolic uptake, cell growth and development. Different trafficking pathways passing through the endosomes are coordinated by the ENTH/ANTH/VHS adaptor protein superfamily. The endosomes are crucial for eukaryotes since the acquisition of the endomembrane system was a central process in eukaryogenesis.

Results

Our in silico analysis of this ENTH/ANTH/VHS superfamily, consisting of proteins gathered from 84 complete genomes representative of the different eukaryotic taxa, revealed that genomic distribution of this superfamily allows to discriminate Fungi and Metazoa from Plantae and Protists. Next, in a four way genome wide comparison, we showed that this discriminative feature is observed not only for other membrane trafficking effectors, but also for proteins involved in metabolism and in cytokinesis, suggesting that metabolism, cytokinesis and intracellular trafficking pathways co-evolved. Moreover, some of the proteins identified were implicated in multiple functions, in either trafficking and metabolism or trafficking and cytokinesis, suggesting that membrane trafficking is central to this co-evolution process.

Conclusions

Our study suggests that membrane trafficking and compartmentalization were not only key features for the emergence of eukaryotic cells but also drove the separation of the eukaryotes in the different taxa.

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) contains both cisternal and reticular elements in one contiguous structure. We identified rtn1Δ in a systematic screen for yeast mutants with altered ER morphology. The ER in rtn1Δ cells is predominantly cisternal rather than reticular, yet the net surface area of ER is not significantly changed. Rtn1-green fluorescent protein (GFP) associates with the reticular ER at the cell cortex and with the tubules that connect the cortical ER to the nuclear envelope, but not with the nuclear envelope itself. Rtn1p overexpression also results in an altered ER structure. Rtn proteins are found on the ER in a wide range of eukaryotes and are defined by two membrane-spanning domains flanking a conserved hydrophilic loop. Our results suggest that Rtn proteins may direct the formation of reticulated ER. We independently identified Rtn1p in a proteomic screen for proteins associated with the exocyst vesicle tethering complex. The conserved hydophilic loop of Rtn1p binds to the exocyst subunit Sec6p. Overexpression of this loop results in a modest accumulation of secretory vesicles, suggesting impaired exocyst function. The interaction of Rtn1p with the exocyst at the bud tip may trigger the formation of a cortical ER network in yeast buds.

The exocyst is an octameric protein complex required to tether secretory vesicles to exocytic sites and to retain ER tubules at the apical tip of budded cells. Unlike the other five exocyst genes, SEC3, SEC5, and EXO70 are not essential for growth or secretion when either the upstream activator rab, Sec4p, or the downstream SNARE-binding component, Sec1p, are overproduced. Analysis of the suppressed sec3Δ, sec5Δ, and exo70Δ strains demonstrates that the corresponding proteins confer differential effects on vesicle targeting and ER inheritance. Sec3p and Sec5p are more critical than Exo70p for ER inheritance. Although nonessential under these conditions, Sec3p, Sec5p, and Exo70p are still important for tethering, as in their absence the exocyst is only partially assembled. Sec1p overproduction results in increased SNARE complex levels, indicating a role in assembly or stabilization of SNARE complexes. Furthermore, a fraction of Sec1p can be coprecipitated with the exoycst. Our results suggest that Sec1p couples exocyst-mediated vesicle tethering with SNARE-mediated docking and fusion.

The SSY1 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae encodes a member of a large family of amino acid permeases. Compared to the 17 other proteins of this family, however, Ssy1p displays unusual structural features reminiscent of those distinguishing the Snf3p and Rgt2p glucose sensors from the other proteins of the sugar transporter family. We show here that SSY1 is required for transcriptional induction, in response to multiple amino acids, of the AGP1 gene encoding a low-affinity, broad-specificity amino acid permease. Total noninduction of the AGP1 gene in the ssy1Δ mutant is not due to impaired incorporation of inducing amino acids. Conversely, AGP1 is strongly induced by tryptophan in a mutant strain largely deficient in tryptophan uptake, but it remains unexpressed in a mutant that accumulates high levels of tryptophan endogenously. Induction of AGP1 requires Uga35p(Dal81p/DurLp), a transcription factor of the Cys6-Zn2 family previously shown to participate in several nitrogen induction pathways. Induction of AGP1 by amino acids also requires Grr1p, the F-box protein of the SCFGrr1 ubiquitin-protein ligase complex also required for transduction of the glucose signal generated by the Snf3p and Rgt2p glucose sensors. Systematic analysis of amino acid permease genes showed that Ssy1p is involved in transcriptional induction of at least five genes in addition to AGP1. Our results show that the amino acid permease homologue Ssy1p is a sensor of external amino acids, coupling availability of amino acids to transcriptional events. The essential role of Grr1p in this amino acid signaling pathway lends further support to the hypothesis that this protein participates in integrating nutrient availability with the cell cycle.