A role for epigenetic adaption in evolution.

The outcome of epigenetic responses to stress depends strictly on genetic background, suggesting that altered phenotypes, when induced, are created by a combination of induced epigenetic factors and pre-existing allelic ones. When individuals with altered phenotypes are selected and subjected to successive breeding, alleles that potentiate epigenetic responses could accumulate in offspring populations. It is reasonable to suppose that many, if not all, of these allelic genes could also be involved in creating new phenotypes under nonstressful conditions. In this review, I discuss the possibility that the accumulation of such alleles in selected individuals with an epigenetic phenotype could give rise to individuals that exhibit the same phenotype even in the absence of stress.

Stimulation of CK2-dependent Grp94 phosphorylation by the nuclear localization signal peptide.

The nuclear localization signal sequence (NLS) of SV40 Large T antigen is essential and sufficient for the nuclear translocation of the protein. Phosphorylation often modulates the intracellular distribution of signaling proteins. In this study, we investigated effects of the NLS-peptide of Large T antigen on protein phosphorylation. When crude cell lysates were incubated with [γ-(32)P]ATP, phosphorylation of several endogenous substrates with molecular masses of 100, 80, 50, and 45 kDa by an endogenous kinase was stimulated by the addition of the wild type NLS-peptide (CPKKKRKVEDP). The mutated NLS-peptide (CPKTKRKVEDP) and the reversed NLS-peptide (PDEVKRKKKPC) are weak in the nuclear localization activity, and they only weakly stimulated phosphorylation of these substrates. The mobility of the 100 kDa phosphoprotein was indistinguishable with that of an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-resident molecular chaperone glucose-regulated protein 94 (Grp94) belonging to the Hsp90 family, and purified Grp94 was phosphorylated by a kinase in cell lysates in an NLS-dependent fashion. The 100 kDa protein was identified as Grp94 by immunoprecipitation and reconstitution experiments. Purification of the NLS-dependent Grp94 kinase by sequential biochemical column chromatography steps resulted in isolation of two polypeptides with molecular masses of 42 and 27 kDa, which were identified as α and ß subunit of protein kinase CK2, respectively, by western blotting analysis and biochemical characterization. Moreover, effect of an excess amount of GTP and V8 peptide mapping showed that the NLS-dependent Grp94 kinase in the cell lysate is identical with CK2. Surprisingly purified CK2 did phosphorylate Grp94 even without the NLS-peptide, suggesting that an additional suppressive factor is required for NLS-dependent phosphorylation of Grp94 by CK2. We suggest a possible general role for CK2-catalyzed phosphorylation in the regulation of NLS-dependent protein nuclear translocation.

Exogenous antigens are processed through the endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation (ERAD) in cross-presentation by dendritic cells.

Antigen cross-presentation is critical in infectious and tumor immunity where cytotoxic T lymphocytes are induced by dendritic cells specifically equipped with cellular machineries to present exogenous antigens with major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules. To examine molecular mechanisms of antigen cross-presentation, we employed as a model system a murine dendritic cell line DC2.4 capable of presenting soluble antigens such as ovalbumin (OVA) with MHC class I. Here, we demonstrate that exogenously added OVA is accumulated in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and late endosomes followed by retrograde transport to the cytoplasm through the Sec61 transporter complexes, and that CHIP functions as an E3 ubiquitin-ligase for OVA degradation by proteasomes. This mechanism is essentially the same as that known as the ER-associated degradation (ERAD) in the quality control of secretary and membrane proteins.

Interaction of neuropeptide Y and Hsp90 through a novel peptide binding region.

Hsp90 is a molecular chaperone that binds and assists refolding of non-native and/or labile polypeptides and also bind various peptides. However, the rules of how Hsp90 recognizes substrates have not been well characterized. By surface plasmon resonance measurements, a physiologically active peptide, neuropeptide Y (NPY), with a strong binding property to Hsp90 was identified from screening of 38 randomly selected peptide candidates. We showed that the carboxy-terminal fragment of NPY (NPY13-36), which forms an amphipathic alpha-helix structure, preserved the strong binding to Hsp90. Immunoprecipitation and immunoblotting using HeLa cell extracts revealed that newly synthesized NPY precursors bound to Hsp90, suggesting that the in vitro binding experiments identified an interactive peptide in vivo. Proteolytic cleavage of the NPY13-36/Hsp90 complex, as well as binding site analysis using deletion mutants of Hsp90, revealed the NPY binding locus on Hsp90alpha as the 192 amino acid region following the N-terminal domain. By electron microscopic analysis using an anti-Hsp90 antibody against the sequence proximal to the highly charged region, we showed that the Hsp90 dimer bound to NPY13-36 at both ends. Mutation of arginine residues in NPY13-36 to alanine abrogated binding to Hsp90. Our studies indicate that the hinge region after the N-terminal domain of Hsp90 and the positive charges on NPY are important for this interaction.

Proteasomes and molecular chaperones: cellular machinery responsible for folding and destruction of unfolded proteins.

Molecular chaperones recognize proteins of non-native structure, prevent them from irreversible intracellular aggregation, and then act with regulatory co-chaperones in the conversion of proteins to be properly folded and in a functional state. However, not every non-native protein is folded successfully. Those proteins that are not accurately folded/ refolded are then directed to the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) for destruction. Both chaperones and proteasomes act jointly together for selective removal of proteins with aberrant structure so as to keep protein homeostasis in cells. Though the precise nature of the cooperative linkage between chaperone and UPS pathways remains largely elusive so far, accumulating evidence from in vivo and in vitro studies shed some light on the molecular mechanisms that link proteasomes and molecular chaperones. This review focuses on how unfolded proteins are handled by these two machineries.

The molecular chaperone Hsp90 plays a role in the assembly and maintenance of the 26S proteasome.

Hsp90 has a diverse array of cellular roles including protein folding, stress response and signal transduction. Herein we report a novel function for Hsp90 in the ATP-dependent assembly of the 26S proteasome. Functional loss of Hsp90 using a temperature-sensitive mutant in yeast caused dissociation of the 26S proteasome. Conversely, these dissociated constituents reassembled in Hsp90-dependent fashion both in vivo and in vitro; the process required ATP-hydrolysis and was suppressed by the Hsp90 inhibitor geldanamycin. We also found genetic interactions between Hsp90 and several proteasomal Rpn (Regulatory particle non-ATPase subunit) genes, emphasizing the importance of Hsp90 to the integrity of the 26S proteasome. Our results indicate that Hsp90 interacts with the 26S proteasome and plays a principal role in the assembly and maintenance of the 26S proteasome.

The actin-severing activity of cofilin is exerted by the interplay of three distinct sites on cofilin and essential for cell viability.

Cofilin/actin-depolymerizing factor is an essential and conserved modulator of actin dynamics. Cofilin binds to actin in either monomeric or filamentous form, severs and depolymerizes actin filaments, and speeds up their treadmilling. A high turnover rate of F-actin in actin-based motility seems driven largely by cofilin-mediated acceleration of directional subunit release, but little by fragmentation of the filaments. On the other hand, the filament-severing function of cofilin seems relevant for the healthy growth of cells. In this study, we have characterized three mutants of porcine cofilin to elucidate the molecular mechanism that underlies the filament-severing activity of cofilin. The first mutant could neither associate with actin filaments nor sever them, whereas it effectively accelerated their treadmilling and directional subunit release. The second mutant bound to actin filaments, but failed to sever them and to interfere with phalloidin binding to the filament. The third mutant could associate with actin filaments and sever them, although with a very reduced efficacy. Of these mutant proteins, only the last one was able to rescue Deltacof1 yeast cells and to induce thick actin bundles in mammalian cells upon overexpression. Therefore, the actin-severing activity of cofilin is an essential element in its vital function and suggested to be exerted by co-operation of at least three distinct sites of cofilin.

Interaction between the N-terminal and middle regions is essential for the in vivo function of HSP90 molecular chaperone.

At the primary structure level, the 90-kDa heat shock protein (HSP90) is composed of three regions: the N-terminal (Met(1)-Arg(400)), middle (Glu(401)-Lys(615)), and C-terminal (Asp(621)-Asp(732)) regions. In the present study, we investigated potential subregion structures of these three regions and their roles. Limited proteolysis revealed that the N-terminal region could be split into two fragments carrying residues Met(1) to Lys(281) (or Lys(283)) and Glu(282) (or Tyr(284)) to Arg(400). The former is known to carry the ATP-binding domain. The fragments carrying the N-terminal two-thirds (Glu(401)-Lys(546)) and C-terminal one-third of the middle region were sufficient for the interactions with the N- and C-terminal regions, respectively. Yeast HSC82 that carried point mutations in the middle region causing deficient binding to the N-terminal region could not support the growth of HSP82-depleted cells at an elevated temperature. Taken together, our data show that the N-terminal and middle regions of the HSP90 family protein are structurally divided into two respective subregions. Moreover, the interaction between the N-terminal and middle regions is essential for the in vivo function of HSP90 in yeast.

Human CAP1 is a key factor in the recycling of cofilin and actin for rapid actin turnover.

Cofilin-ADF (actin-depolymerizing factor) is an essential driver of actin-based motility. We discovered two proteins, p65 and p55, that are components of the actin-cofilin complex in a human HEK293 cell extract and identified p55 as CAP1/ASP56, a human homologue of yeast CAP/SRV2 (cyclase-associated protein). CAP is a bifunctional protein with an N-terminal domain that binds to Ras-responsive adenylyl cyclase and a C-terminal domain that inhibits actin polymerization. Surprisingly, we found that the N-terminal domain of CAP1, but not the C-terminal domain, is responsible for the interaction with the actin-cofilin complex. The N-terminal domain of CAP1 was also found to accelerate the depolymerization of F-actin at the pointed end, which was further enhanced in the presence of cofilin and/or the C-terminal domain of CAP1. Moreover, CAP1 and its C-terminal domain were observed to facilitate filament elongation at the barbed end and to stimulate ADP-ATP exchange on G-actin, a process that regenerates easily polymerizable G-actin. Although cofilin inhibited the nucleotide exchange on G-actin even in the presence of the C-terminal domain of CAP1, its N-terminal domain relieved this inhibition. Thus, CAP1 plays a key role in speeding up the turnover of actin filaments by effectively recycling cofilin and actin and through its effect on both ends of actin filament.