A functional link between the co-translational protein translocation pathway and the UPR
Abstract
Upon endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, the transmembrane endoribonuclease Ire1α performs mRNA cleavage reactions to increase the ER folding capacity. It is unclear how the low abundant Ire1α efficiently finds and cleaves the majority of mRNAs at the ER membrane. Here, we reveal that Ire1α forms a complex with the Sec61 translocon to cleave its mRNA substrates. We show that Ire1α's key substrate, XBP1u mRNA, is recruited to the Ire1α-Sec61 translocon complex through its nascent chain, which contains a pseudo-transmembrane domain to utilize the signal recognition particle (SRP)-mediated pathway. Depletion of SRP, the SRP receptor or the Sec61 translocon in cells leads to reduced Ire1α-mediated splicing of XBP1u mRNA. Furthermore, mutations in Ire1α that disrupt the Ire1α-Sec61 complex causes reduced Ire1α-mediated cleavage of ER-targeted mRNAs. Thus, our data suggest that the UPR is coupled with the co-translational protein translocation pathway to maintain protein homeostasis in the ER during stress conditions.
Article and author information
Author details
Reviewing Editor
- Reid Gilmore, University of Massachusetts Medical School, United States
Publication history
- Received: March 11, 2015
- Accepted: May 19, 2015
- Accepted Manuscript published: May 20, 2015 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: June 5, 2015 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2015, Plumb et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 4,413
- Page views
-
- 1,188
- Downloads
-
- 52
- Citations
Article citation count generated by polling the highest count across the following sources: Crossref, Scopus, PubMed Central.
Download links
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Further reading
-
- Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
- Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Doublecortin (DCX) is a microtubule (MT)-associated protein that regulates MT structure and function during neuronal development and mutations in DCX lead to a spectrum of neurological disorders. The structural properties of MT-bound DCX that explain these disorders are incompletely determined. Here, we describe the molecular architecture of the DCX–MT complex through an integrative modeling approach that combines data from X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, and a high-fidelity chemical crosslinking method. We demonstrate that DCX interacts with MTs through its N-terminal domain and induces a lattice-dependent self-association involving the C-terminal structured domain and its disordered tail, in a conformation that favors an open, domain-swapped state. The networked state can accommodate multiple different attachment points on the MT lattice, all of which orient the C-terminal tails away from the lattice. As numerous disease mutations cluster in the C-terminus, and regulatory phosphorylations cluster in its tail, our study shows that lattice-driven self-assembly is an important property of DCX.
-
- Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Listeria monocytogenes uses respiration to sustain a risky fermentative lifestyle during infection.