Roles of singleton tryptophan motifs in COPI coat stability and vesicle tethering

Sophie M. Travis, Bashkim Kokona, Robert Fairman, Frederick M. Hughson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Coat protein I (COPI)-coated vesicles mediate retrograde transport from the Golgi to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), as well as transport within the Golgi. Major progress has been made in defining the structure of COPI coats, in vitro and in vivo, at resolutions as high as 9 Å. Nevertheless, important questions remain unanswered, including what specific interactions stabilize COPI coats, how COPI vesicles recognize their target membranes, and how coat disassembly is coordinated with vesicle fusion and cargo delivery. Here, we use X-ray crystallography to identify a conserved site on the COPI subunit α-COP that binds to flexible, acidic sequences containing a single tryptophan residue. One such sequence, found within α-COP itself, mediates α-COP homo-oligomerization. Another such sequence is contained within the lasso of the ER-resident Dsl1 complex, where it helps mediate the tethering of Golgi-derived COPI vesicles at the ER membrane. Together, our findings suggest that α-COP homo-oligomerization plays a key role in COPI coat stability, with potential implications for the coordination of vesicle tethering, uncoating, and fusion.

BIOCHEMISTRY

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)24031-24040
Number of pages10
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume116
Issue number48
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 26 2019

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General

Keywords

  • COPI
  • Dsl1
  • Membrane trafficking
  • Tethering complex
  • Vesicle coat

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