"Lateral Distribution of the Transmembrane Domain of Influenza Virus Hemagglutinin Revealed by Time-resolved Fluorescence Imaging" Silvia Scolari, Stephanie Engel, Nils Krebs, Anna Pia Plazzo, Rodrigo F. M. De Almeida, Manuel Prieto, Michael Veit and Andreas Herrmann
J. Mol. Biol. 284 (2009), 15708–15716
Abstract: Influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) has been suggested to be
enriched in liquid-ordered lipid domains named rafts, which
represent an important step in virus assembly. We employed
Fo¨rster resonance energy transfer (FRET) via fluorescence lifetime
imaging microscopy to study the interaction of the cytoplasmic
and transmembrane domain (TMD) of HA with a
glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored peptide, an established
marker for rafts in the exoplasmic leaflet of living mammalian
plasma membranes. Cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) was
fused to GPI, whereas the HA sequence was tagged with yellow
fluorescent protein (YFP) on its exoplasmic site (TMD-HAYFP),
avoiding any interference of fluorescent proteins with
the proposed role of the cytoplasmic domain in lateral organization
of HA. Constructs were expressed in Chinese hamster
ovary cells (CHO-K1) for which cholesterol-sensitive
lipid nanodomains and their dimension in the plasma membrane
have been described (Sharma, P., Varma, R., Sarasij,
R. C., Ira, Gousset, K., Krishnamoorthy, G., Rao, M., and
Mayor, S. (2004) Cell 116, 577–589). Upon transfection in
CHO-K1 cells, TMD-HA-YFP is partially expressed as a
dimer. Only dimers are targeted to the plasma membrane.
Clustering of TMD-HA-YFP with GPI-CFP was observed and
shown to be reduced upon cholesterol depletion, a treatment
known to disrupt rafts. No indication for association of TMDHA-
YFP with GPI-CFP was found when palmitoylation, an
important determinant of raft targeting, was suppressed.
Clustering of TMD-HA-YFP and GPI-CFP was also observed
in purified plasma membrane suspensions by homoFRET.We
concluded that the palmitoylated TMD-HA alone is sufficient
to recruit HA to cholesterol-sensitive nanodomains. The corresponding
construct of the spike protein E2 of Semliki Forest
virus did not partition preferentially in such domains.
This publication has not been written at BMO
BMO authors (in alphabetic order): Nils Krebs
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