Critical roles for the COOH terminus of the Cu-ATPase ATP7B in protein stability, trans-Golgi network retention, copper sensing, and retrograde trafficking

ATP7A and ATP7B are copper-transporting P-type ATPases that are essential to eukaryotic copper homeostasis and must traffic between intracellular compartments to carry out their functions. Previously, we identified a nine-amino acid sequence (F37-E45) in the NH(2) terminus of ATP7B that is required to retain the protein in the Golgi when copper levels are low and target it apically in polarized hepatic cells when copper levels rise. To understand further the mechanisms regulating the intracellular dynamics of ATP7B, using multiple functional assays, we characterized the protein phenotypes of 10 engineered and Wilson disease-associated mutations in the ATP7B COOH terminus in polarized hepatic cells and fibroblasts. We also examined the behavior of a chimera between ATP7B and ATP7A. Our results clearly demonstrate the importance of the COOH terminus of ATP7B in the protein's copper-responsive apical trafficking. L1373 at the end of transmembrane domain 8 is required for protein stability and Golgi retention in low copper, the trileucine motif (L1454-L1456) is required for retrograde trafficking, and the COOH terminus of ATP7B exhibits a higher sensitivity to copper than does ATP7A. Importantly, our results demonstrating that four Wilson disease-associated missense mutations behaved in a wild-type manner in all our assays, together with current information in the literature, raise the possibility that several may not be disease-causing mutations.

Dynamics of endogenous ATP7A (Menkes protein) in intestinal epithelial cells: copper-dependent redistribution between two intracellular sites

We report for the first time on the copper-dependent behavior of endogenous ATP7A in two types of polarized intestinal epithelia, rat enterocytes in vivo and filter-grown Caco-2 cells, an accepted in vitro model of human small intestine. We used high-resolution, confocal immunofluorescence combined with quantitative cell surface biotinylation and found that the vast majority of endogenous ATP7A was localized intracellularly under all copper conditions. In copper-depleted cells, virtually all of the ATP7A localized to a post-TGN compartment, with <3% of the total protein detectable at the basolateral cell surface. When copper levels were elevated, ATP7A dispersed to the cell periphery in punctae whose pattern did not overlap with the steady-state distributions of post-Golgi, endosomal, or basolateral membrane markers; only approximately 8-10% of the recovered ATP7A was detected at the basolateral cell surface. These results raise several questions regarding prevailing models of ATP7A dynamics and the mechanism of copper efflux.

Synapsin I is expressed in epithelial cells: localization to a unique trans-Golgi compartment

Synapsin I is abundant in neural tissues. Its phosphorylation is thought to regulate synaptic vesicle exocytosis in the pre-synaptic terminal by mediating vesicle tethering to the cytoskeleton. Using anti-synapsin antibodies, we detected an 85 kDa protein in liver cells and identified it as synapsin I. Like brain synapsin I, non-neuronal synapsin I is phosphorylated in vitro by protein kinase A and yields identical 32P-peptide maps after limited proteolysis. We also detected synapsin I mRNA in liver by northern blot analysis. These results indicate that the expression of synapsin I is more widespread than previously thought. Immunofluorescence analysis of several non-neuronal cell lines localizes synapsin I to a vesicular compartment adjacent to trans-elements of the Golgi complex, which is also labeled with antibodies against myosin II; no sub-plasma membrane synapsin I is evident. We conclude that synapsin I is present in epithelial cells and is associated with a trans-Golgi network-derived compartment; this localization suggests that it plays a role in modulating post-TGN trafficking pathways.