Sphingosine-1-phosphate phosphatases.

Sphingosine-1-phosphate is a potent proliferative, survival, and morphogenetic factor, acting as an extracellular ligand for the EDG family of G-protein-coupled receptors and possibly intracellularly through as yet, unidentified targets. It is produced within most, if not all cells by phosphorylation of sphingosine, and is an abundant serum lipid that is released from activated platelets. Sphingosine and sphingosine-1-phosphate are in dynamic equilibrium with each other due to the activities of sphingosine kinase and sphingosine-1-phosphate phosphatase (SPPase). Several SPPase genes have now been cloned, first from yeast and more recently from mammalian cells. By sequence homology, these enzymes can be classified as a subset of membrane bound, Type 2 lipid phosphohydrolases that contain conserved residues within three domains predicted to be at the active site of the enzyme. Outside of the consensus motif, there is very little homology between SPPases and the other type 2 lipid phosphohydrolases in the LPP/PAP family. Type 2 phosphatase activity is Mg+-independent and insensitive to N-ethylmaleimide, and substrate specificity is broad for LPP enzymes, whereas SPPases are highly selective for sphingolipid substrates. SPPase activity in yeast and mammalian cells regulates intracellular sphingosine-1-phosphate levels, and also alters the levels of sphingosine and ceramide, two other signaling molecules that often oppose the actions of sphingosine-1-phosphate. Thus, loss of SPPase in yeast results in high sphingosine-1-phosphate levels and cells are more resistant to stress, and in mammalian cells, overexpression of SPPase elevates ceramide levels and provokes apoptosis.

Viridiofungins, novel inhibitors of sphingolipid synthesis.

Viridiofungins are broad spectrum antifungal agents that inhibit the squalene synthase in vitro, but do not specifically inhibit fungal ergosterol synthesis in whole cells, indicating a different mode of action for antifungal activity. In this report, we show that viridiofungins are potent in vitro inhibitors of serine palmitoyltransferase, the first committed enzyme in sphingolipid biosynthesis, and their antifungal activity is due to inhibition of sphingolipid synthesis. Additional related components with the same mode of action were isolated from the producing culture, Trichoderma viride, and inhibition of the serine palmitoyltransferase and antifungal activity is presented.

The discovery of australifungin, a novel inhibitor of sphinganine N-acyltransferase from Sporormiella australis. Producing organism, fermentation, isolation, and biological activity.

Potent antifungal activity was detected in fermentation extracts of Sporormiella australis and two related components were isolated from solid fermentations using silica gel and high speed countercurrent chromatography. The most active antifungal component, australifungin, contained a unique combination of alpha-diketone and beta-ketoaldehyde functional groups. Australifungin exhibited broad spectrum antifungal activity against human pathogenic fungi with MICs against Candida spp., Cryptococcus neoformans, and Aspergillus spp. between 0.015 and 1.0 microgram/ml. Mode of action studies revealed that australifungin interfered with fungal lipid metabolism by specifically inhibiting sphingolipid synthesis at the step converting sphinganine to ceramide.

Inhibition of fungal sphingolipid biosynthesis by rustmicin, galbonolide B and their new 21-hydroxy analogs.

The mode of action of the known antifungal macrolides rustmicin (1) and galbonolide B (2) has been determined to be the inhibition of sphingolipid biosynthesis. A large scale fermentation and isolation process was developed for production of large quantities of rustmicin. New 21-hydroxy derivatives of both compounds were isolated from pilot scale fermentations and were also produced by biotransformation of rustmicin and galbonolide B.

Identification of tryptic cleavage sites for two conformational states of the Neurospora plasma membrane H+-ATPase.

Previous work has shown that the tryptic degradation pattern of the Neurospora plasma membrane H+-ATPase varies with the presence and absence of ligands, thus providing information about conformational states of the enzyme (Addison, R., and Scarborough, G. A. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 10421-10426; Brooker, R. J., and Slayman, C. W. (1983) J. Biol. Chem. 258, 8827-8832). In the present study, sites of tryptic cleavage have been mapped by immunoblotting with N- and C-terminal specific antibodies and by direct sequencing of proteolytic products after electro-transfer to polyvinylidene difluoride filters. In the absence of ligands (likely to represent the E1 conformation), trypsin cleaved the 100-kDa ATPase polypeptide at three sites very near the N terminus: Lys-24, Lys-36, and Arg-73. Removal of the first 36 amino acid residues only slightly affected ATPase activity, but removal of the subsequent 37 residues inactivated the enzyme completely. In the presence of vanadate and Mg2+ (E2 conformation), the rate of trypsinolysis at Arg-73 was greatly reduced, and enzyme activity was protected. In addition, a new cleavage site near the C terminus (Arg-900) became accessible to trypsin. Both effects of vanadate occurred at micromolar concentrations, well within the range previously measured for vanadate inhibition of ATPase activity. Taken together, these results suggest that the Neurospora ATPase undergoes significant conformational changes at both termini of the polypeptide during its reaction cycle.

The amino and carboxyl termini of the Neurospora plasma membrane H+-ATPase are cytoplasmically located.

Based on hydropathy analysis, the P-type cation translocating ATPases are believed to have similar topological arrangements in the membrane, but little independent evidence exists for their precise pattern of transmembrane folding. As a first step toward defining the topology of the Neurospora plasma membrane H+-ATPase, we have mapped the orientation of the amino and carboxyl termini. In three different types of experiments, both termini of the H+-ATPase were shown to be exposed at the cytoplasmic surface of the plasma membrane: 1) antibodies specific for the amino and carboxyl termini bound to permeabilized but not intact cells; 2) inside-out plasma membrane vesicles were approximately 100-fold more effective than intact cells in competing for antibody binding; and 3) trypsin, which is known to proteolyze three sites at the amino terminus and one site at the carboxyl terminus of the purified Neurospora H+-ATPase (Mandala, S. M., and Slayman, C. W. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 15122-15128), was found in the present study to cleave the same sites in inside-out plasma membrane vesicles but not in intact cells. These results indicate that the ATPase polypeptide traverses the membrane an even number of times, in support of a previously published topological model (Hager, K. M., Mandala, S. M., Davenport, J. W., Speicher, D. W., Benz, E. J., Jr., and Slayman, C. W. (1986) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 83, 7693-7697).

Amino acid sequence of the plasma membrane ATPase of Neurospora crassa: deduction from genomic and cDNA sequences.

The plasma membrane of Neurospora crassa contains an electrogenic H+-ATPase (EC 3.6.1.35), for which we have isolated and sequenced both genomic and cDNA clones. The ATPase gene is interrupted by four small introns (58-124 base pairs). It encodes a protein of 920 amino acids (Mr, 99,886) possessing as many as eight transmembrane segments. The Neurospora ATPase shows significant amino acid sequence homology with the Na+,K+- and Ca2+-transporting ATPases of animal cells, particularly in regions that appear to be involved in ATP binding and hydrolysis.

Sphingoid base 1-phosphate phosphatase: a key regulator of sphingolipid metabolism and stress response.

The sphingolipid metabolites ceramide and sphingosine-1-phosphate are second messengers with opposing roles in mammalian cell growth arrest and survival; their relative cellular level has been proposed to be a rheostat that determines the fate of cells. This report demonstrates that this rheostat is an evolutionarily conserved stress-regulatory mechanism that influences growth and survival of yeast. Although the role of sphingosine-1-phosphate in yeast was not previously examined, accumulation of ceramide has been shown to induce G1 arrest and cell death. We now have identified a gene in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, LBP1, that regulates the levels of phosphorylated sphingoid bases and ceramide. LBP1 was cloned from a yeast mutant that accumulated phosphorylated long-chain sphingoid bases and diverted sphingoid base intermediates from sphingolipid pathways to glycerophospholipid biosynthesis. LBP1 and its homolog, LBP2, encode very hydrophobic proteins that contain a novel-conserved sequence motif for lipid phosphatases, and both have long-chain sphingoid base phosphate phosphatase activity. In vitro characterization of Lbp1p shows that this phosphatase is Mg2+-independent with high specificity for phosphorylated long-chain bases, phytosphingosine and sphingosine. The deletion of LBP1 results in the accumulation of phosphorylated long-chain sphingoid bases and reduced ceramide levels. Moreover, deletion of LBP1 and LBP2 results in dramatically enhanced survival upon severe heat shock. Thus, these phosphatases play a previously unappreciated role in regulating ceramide and phosphorylated sphingoid base levels in yeast, and they modulate stress responses through sphingolipid metabolites in a manner that is reminiscent of their effects on mammalian cells.

Biosynthesis of the plasma membrane H+-ATPase of Neurospora crassa.

The plasma membrane H+-ATPase of Neurospora is a 100-kDa integral membrane protein which appears, on the basis of hydropathy analysis of its amino acid sequence, to span the lipid bilayer at least eight times. To investigate the assembly and processing of the ATPase, a full-length cDNA has been constructed for use in in vitro transcription and translation experiments. Comparison of three different forms of the ATPase (nascent protein, nascent protein cotranslationally inserted into membranes, and mature protein) revealed no difference in electrophoretic mobility. Furthermore, the nascent and mature forms gave identical peptide patterns after partial proteolysis with Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease, suggesting that the ATPase does not contain an NH2-terminal signal peptide which is cleaved upon membrane insertion. Consistent with this interpretation, the NH2-terminal peptide has been purified from a tryptic digest of the ATPase and found to lack only the initiator methionine residue; the penultimate alanine is acetylated based on analysis by fast atom bombardment mass spectroscopy. Although the ATPase contains one potential site of N-linked glycosylation, its electrophoretic mobility was unchanged following digestion with endoglycosidase H and it did not incorporate [3H]mannose or bind concanavalin A. Thus, the Neurospora plasma membrane-ATPase appears to undergo minimal post-translational processing, and its membrane insertion is probably mediated by internal sequences.

Khafrefungin, a novel inhibitor of sphingolipid synthesis.

In the course of screening for antifungal agents we have discovered a novel compound isolated from an endophytic fungus that inhibits fungal sphingolipid synthesis. Khafrefungin, which is composed of aldonic acid linked via an ester to a C22 modified alkyl chain, has fungicidal activity against Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Sphingolipid synthesis is inhibited in these organisms at the step in which phosphoinositol is transferred to ceramide, resulting in accumulation of ceramide and loss of all of the complex sphingolipids. In vitro, khafrefungin inhibits the inositol phosphoceramide synthase of C. albicans with an IC50 of 0.6 nM. Khafrefungin does not inhibit the synthesis of mammalian sphingolipids thus making this the first reported compound that is specific for the fungal pathway.

Molecular cloning and characterization of a lipid phosphohydrolase that degrades sphingosine-1- phosphate and induces cell death.

Sphingosine and sphingosine-1-phosphate (SPP) are interconvertible sphingolipid metabolites with opposing effects on cell growth and apoptosis. Based on sequence homology with LBP1, a lipid phosphohydrolase that regulates the levels of phosphorylated sphingoid bases in yeast, we report here the cloning, identification, and characterization of a mammalian SPP phosphatase (mSPP1). This hydrophobic enzyme, which contains the type 2 lipid phosphohydrolase conserved sequence motif, shows substrate specificity for SPP. Partially purified Myc-tagged mSPP1 was also highly active at dephosphorylating SPP. When expressed in yeast, mSPP1 can partially substitute for the function of LBP1. Membrane fractions from human embryonic kidney HEK293 cells transfected with mSPP1 markedly degraded SPP but not lysophosphatidic acid, phosphatidic acid, or ceramide-1-phosphate. Enforced expression of mSPP1 in NIH 3T3 fibroblasts not only decreased SPP and enhanced ceramide levels, it also markedly diminished survival and induced the characteristic traits of apoptosis. Collectively, our results suggest that SPP phosphohydrolase may regulate the dynamic balance between sphingolipid metabolite levels in mammalian cells and consequently influence cell fate.

Rustmicin, a potent antifungal agent, inhibits sphingolipid synthesis at inositol phosphoceramide synthase.

Rustmicin is a 14-membered macrolide previously identified as an inhibitor of plant pathogenic fungi by a mechanism that was not defined. We discovered that rustmicin inhibits inositol phosphoceramide synthase, resulting in the accumulation of ceramide and the loss of all of the complex sphingolipids. Rustmicin has potent fungicidal activity against clinically important human pathogens that is correlated with its sphingolipid inhibition. It is especially potent against Cryptococcus neoformans, where it inhibits growth and sphingolipid synthesis at concentrations <1 ng/ml and inhibits the enzyme with an IC50 of 70 pM. This inhibition of the membrane-bound enzyme is reversible; moreover, rustmicin is nearly equipotent against the solubilized enzyme. Rustmicin was efficacious in a mouse model for cryptococcosis, but it was less active than predicted from its in vitro potency against this pathogen. Stability and drug efflux were identified as two factors limiting rustmicin's activity. In the presence of serum, rustmicin rapidly epimerizes at the C-2 position and is converted to a gamma-lactone, a product that is devoid of activity. Rustmicin was also found to be a remarkably good substrate for the Saccharomyces cerevisiae multidrug efflux pump encoded by PDR5.