Mechanisms of Lipid Droplet Protein Targeting

描述(申请人提供)：细胞代谢能量以中性脂质的形式储存，特别是三酰甘油(TGS)，它们被包装在细胞质脂滴(LDS)中。LDS还含有膜生物发生所需的甾醇酯(SE)。在某些疾病的发展过程中，包括肥胖、代谢综合征和动脉粥样硬化，LDS会过度积累。丙型肝炎病毒复制也需要LDS，许多病毒蛋白与这个细胞器特异地相互作用。尽管它们对人类健康具有重要意义，但令人惊讶的是，人们对基本的LD细胞生物学知之甚少，特别是在蛋白质靶向方面。LDS的疏水核心由TGS和SES组成，由一层磷脂单分子层包围，其中含有一组基本上未知的蛋白质。LDS的大部分功能，包括甘油三酯合成、甘油三酯储存和能量动员，都是由这些表面蛋白执行和调节的。在细胞器中，LD是独一无二的，因为它们的表面是疏水相(LD核心)和水相(细胞质)的结合。因此，这种单分子层不能适应典型的跨膜蛋白，其球状结构域位于跨膜片段的两侧。因此，将特定蛋白质靶向LDS必须涉及独特的机制，这就是本文提出的研究主题。为了阐明这些机制，我们必须首先确定一个高置信度的LD蛋白质组，这可以通过我们最先进的基于定量质谱学的蛋白质组学方法来完成。然后，我们将继续确定蛋白质如何从细胞质靶向LDS，重点是一组模型蛋白质，并应用我们实验室建立的各种细胞生物学和生化方法。我们随后将使用我们的无偏见蛋白质组学方法来定义共享为这些模型定义的通路的蛋白质的范围。在第二条线的研究中，我们建议确定一组不同的包含预测多个跨膜结构域的序列的蛋白质是如何针对LDS或紧密相关的膜的。对于该项目的每一部分，我们将测试LD蛋白靶向的功能后果以及我们发现的机制的进化保守性。尽管这里提出的研究是基础的，但我们对驱动脂滴蛋白靶向的基本细胞机制的确定将有助于开发治疗策略来对抗涉及脂滴的疾病，并推动对这些细胞器的细胞生物学的进一步研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cellular metabolic energy is stored in the form of neutral lipids, particularly triacylglycerols (TGs), which are packaged in cytoplasmic lipid droplets (LDs). LDs also contain sterol esters (SEs), which are required for membrane biogenesis. Excessive accumulation of LDs occurs during the progression of certain diseases, including obesity, metabolic syndrome and atherosclerosis. LDs are also required for hepatitis C virus replication, and a number of viral proteins specifically interact with this organelle. Despite their significance to human health, surprisingly little is known about basic LD cell biology, especially in terms of protein targeting. The hydrophobic core of LDs consisting of TGs and SEs is bounded by a phospholipid monolayer, which harbors a set of largely-unidentified proteins. Most functions of LDs, including TG synthesis, TG storage, and energy mobilization, are executed and regulated by these surface proteins. Among organelles, LDs are unique because their surface is an apposition of a hydrophobic phase (the LD core) and an aqueous phase (the cytoplasm). This monolayer is thus not configured to accommodate typical transmembrane proteins with globular domains flanking transmembrane segments. Therefore, the targeting of particular proteins to LDs must involve unique mechanisms, which are the subject of the research proposed here. To elucidate these mechanisms, we must first determine a high-confidence LD proteome, which we can accomplish via our state-of-the-art quantitative mass spectrometry-based proteomics methods. We will then proceed to determine how proteins are targeted to LDs from the cytoplasm, focusing on a set of model proteins and applying a variety of cell biological and biochemical methods we have established in our laboratory. We will subsequently use our unbiased proteomics approach to define the scope of proteins that share the pathways defined for these models. In a second line of research, we propose to determine how a distinct set of proteins that contain sequences predicting multiple trans-membrane domains are targeted to LDs or closely- associated membranes. For each part of the project, we will test the functional consequences of LD protein targeting as well as evolutionary conservation of the mechanisms we discover. Although the research proposed here is basic, our determination of the fundamental cellular mechanism that drives lipid droplet protein targeting will facilitate the development of therapeutic strategies to combat diseases that involve lipid droplets, as well as propel further research into the cell biology of these organelles.