Live cell imaging with protein domains capable of recognizing phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate; a comparative study

BMC Cell Biology, Dec 2009

Background Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate [PtdIns(4,5)P2] is a critically important regulatory phospholipid found in the plasma membrane of all eukaryotic cells. In addition to being a precursor of important second messengers, PtdIns(4,5)P2 also regulates ion channels and transporters and serves the endocytic machinery by recruiting clathrin adaptor proteins. Visualization of the localization and dynamic changes in PtdIns(4,5)P2 levels in living cells is critical to understanding the biology of PtdIns(4,5)P2. This has been mostly achieved with the use of the pleckstrin homology (PH) domain of PLCδ1 fused to GFP. Here we report on a comparative analysis of several recently-described yeast PH domains as well as the mammalian Tubby domain to evaluate their usefulness as PtdIns(4,5)P2 imaging tools. Results All of the yeast PH domains that have been previously shown to bind PtdIns(4,5)P2 showed plasma membrane localization but only a subset responded to manipulations of plasma membrane PtdIns(4,5)P2. None of these domains showed any advantage over the PLCδ1PH-GFP reporter and were compromised either in their expression levels, nuclear localization or by causing peculiar membrane structures. In contrast, the Tubby domain showed high membrane localization consistent with PtdIns(4,5)P2 binding and displayed no affinity for the soluble headgroup, Ins(1,4,5)P3. Detailed comparison of the Tubby and PLCδ1PH domains showed that the Tubby domain has a higher affinity for membrane PtdIns(4,5)P2 and therefore displays a lower sensitivity to report on changes of this lipid during phospholipase C activation. Conclusion These results showed that both the PLCδ1PH-GFP and the GFP-Tubby domain are useful reporters of PtdIns(4,5)P2 changes in the plasma membrane, with distinct advantages and disadvantages. While the PLCδ1PH-GFP is a more sensitive reporter, its Ins(1,4,5)P3 binding may compromise its accuracy to measure PtdIns(4,5)P2changes. The Tubby domain is more accurate to report on PtdIns(4,5)P2 but its higher affinity and lower sensitivity may limit its utility when phospholipase C activation is only moderate. These studies also demonstrated that similar changes in PtdIns(4,5)P2 levels in the plasma membrane can differentially regulate multiple effectors if they display different affinities to PtdIns(4,5)P2.

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Live cell imaging with protein domains capable of recognizing phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate; a comparative study

BMC Cell Biology Live cell imaging with protein domains capable of recognizing phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate; a comparative study Zsofia Szentpetery 2 Andras Balla 1 Yeun Ju Kim 2 Mark A Lemmon 0 Tamas Balla 2 0 Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia, PA 19104 , USA 1 Department of Physiology, Semmelweis University, School of Medicine , Budapest , Hungary 2 Sections on Molecular Signal Transduction, Program for Developmental Neuroscience, NICHD, National Institutes of Health , Bethesda, MD 20892 , USA Background: Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate [PtdIns(4,5)P2] is a critically important regulatory phospholipid found in the plasma membrane of all eukaryotic cells. In addition to being a precursor of important second messengers, PtdIns(4,5)P2 also regulates ion channels and transporters and serves the endocytic machinery by recruiting clathrin adaptor proteins. Visualization of the localization and dynamic changes in PtdIns(4,5)P2 levels in living cells is critical to understanding the biology of PtdIns(4,5)P2. This has been mostly achieved with the use of the pleckstrin homology (PH) domain of PLC1 fused to GFP. Here we report on a comparative analysis of several recently-described yeast PH domains as well as the mammalian Tubby domain to evaluate their usefulness as PtdIns(4,5)P2 imaging tools. Results: All of the yeast PH domains that have been previously shown to bind PtdIns(4,5)P2 showed plasma membrane localization but only a subset responded to manipulations of plasma membrane PtdIns(4,5)P2. None of these domains showed any advantage over the PLC1PH-GFP reporter and were compromised either in their expression levels, nuclear localization or by causing peculiar membrane structures. In contrast, the Tubby domain showed high membrane localization consistent with PtdIns(4,5)P2 binding and displayed no affinity for the soluble headgroup, Ins(1,4,5)P3. Detailed comparison of the Tubby and PLC1PH domains showed that the Tubby domain has a higher affinity for membrane PtdIns(4,5)P2 and therefore displays a lower sensitivity to report on changes of this lipid during phospholipase C activation. Conclusion: These results showed that both the PLC1PH-GFP and the GFP-Tubby domain are useful reporters of PtdIns(4,5)P2 changes in the plasma membrane, with distinct advantages and disadvantages. While the PLC1PH-GFP is a more sensitive reporter, its Ins(1,4,5)P3 binding may compromise its accuracy to measure PtdIns(4,5)P2changes. The Tubby domain is more accurate to report on PtdIns(4,5)P2 but its higher affinity and lower sensitivity may limit its utility when phospholipase C activation is only moderate. These studies also demonstrated that similar changes in PtdIns(4,5)P2 levels in the plasma membrane can differentially regulate multiple effectors if they display different affinities to PtdIns(4,5)P2. - Background Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate [PtdIns(4,5)P2] is the major polyphosphoinositide species found in the plasma membrane (PM) of all eukaryotic cells. This regulatory lipid has several functions in the PM: first, it was identified as the primary substrate of receptor-mediated phospholipase C (PLC) activation, to yield the second messengers, inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate (InsP3) and diacylglycerol [1]. PtdIns(4,5)P2 is also important for endocytosis of PM proteins through its binding to several clathrin adaptors [2]. Moreover, PtdIns(4,5)P2 is required for the proper functioning of many ion channels and transporters [3,4] and also contributes to the regulation of actin polymerization [5] and attachment of the PM to the actin cytoskeleton [6]. Although the majority of PtdIns(4,5)P2 is found in the PM, functional data suggest that the lipid may also regulate signaling complexes in other membranes and even within the nucleus [7]. The pivotal importance and pleiotropic functions of PtdIns(4,5)P2 have demanded that its distribution and dynamics be followed with subcellular resolution preferentially in living cells. This was finally achieved with the introduction of the PLC1-PH-domain GFP chimera as a molecular probe to detect PtdIns(4,5)P2 in eukaryotic cells [8,9]. The PLC1PH-GFP reporter has since been widely used successfully to monitor PtdIns(4,5)P2 dynamics under a variety of cellular settings [10]. This reporter has not shown significant amounts of PtdIns(4,5)P2 in intracellular membranes other than endocytic vesicles in live cells [11], although it detected some of the lipid in internal membranes in an EM application [12]. This could reflect low abundance of PtdIns(4,5)P2 in internal membranes or a requirement for other components present only in the PM for the PtdIns(4,5)P2-dependent membrane recruitment of the PLC1PH-GFP probe. Moreover, because of its high-affinity binding to InsP3, the interpretation of the data obtained by the use of the PLC1PH domain has become highly debated [10]. Several studies have shown th (...truncated)


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Andras Balla, Mark A Lemmon, Tamas Balla, Yeun Ju Kim, Zsofia Szentpetery. Live cell imaging with protein domains capable of recognizing phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate; a comparative study, BMC Cell Biology, 2009,