Phosphorylation of iRhom2 at the plasma membrane controls mammalian TACE-dependent inflammatory and growth factor signalling
Abstract
Proteolytic cleavage and release from the cell surface of membrane-tethered ligands is an important mechanism of regulating intercellular signalling. TACE is a major shedding protease, responsible for the liberation of the inflammatory cytokine TNFα and ligands of the epidermal growth factor receptor. iRhoms, catalytically inactive members of the rhomboid-like superfamily, have been shown to control the ER-to-Golgi transport and maturation of TACE. Here, we reveal that iRhom2 remains associated with TACE throughout the secretory pathway, and is stabilised at the cell surface by this interaction. At the plasma membrane, ERK1/2-mediated phosphorylation and 14-3-3 protein binding of the cytoplasmic amino-terminus of iRhom2 alter its interaction with mature TACE, thereby licensing its proteolytic activity. We show that this molecular mechanism is responsible for triggering inflammatory responses in primary mouse macrophages. Overall, iRhom2 binds to TACE throughout its lifecycle, implying that iRhom2 is a primary regulator of stimulated cytokine and growth factor signalling.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Wellcome (101035/Z/13/Z)
- Adam Graham Grieve
- Hongmei Xu
- Ulrike Künzel
- Paul Bambrough
- Boris Sieber
- Matthew Freeman
Medical Research Council (Graduate student scholarship)
- Ulrike Künzel
Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds (Graduate student scholarship)
- Ulrike Künzel
- Boris Sieber
National Natural Science Foundation of China (31640023)
- Hongmei Xu
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement 659166)
- Adam Graham Grieve
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: This study was performed in strict accordance with University of Oxford and UK Government rules and guidelines. The procedures and justification for the research was approved under UK PPL 80/2584.
Copyright
© 2017, Grieve 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.
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Further reading
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- Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Teichoic acids (TA) are linear phospho-saccharidic polymers and important constituents of the cell envelope of Gram-positive bacteria, either bound to the peptidoglycan as wall teichoic acids (WTA) or to the membrane as lipoteichoic acids (LTA). The composition of TA varies greatly but the presence of both WTA and LTA is highly conserved, hinting at an underlying fundamental function that is distinct from their specific roles in diverse organisms. We report the observation of a periplasmic space in Streptococcus pneumoniae by cryo-electron microscopy of vitreous sections. The thickness and appearance of this region change upon deletion of genes involved in the attachment of TA, supporting their role in the maintenance of a periplasmic space in Gram-positive bacteria as a possible universal function. Consequences of these mutations were further examined by super-resolved microscopy, following metabolic labeling and fluorophore coupling by click chemistry. This novel labeling method also enabled in-gel analysis of cell fractions. With this approach, we were able to titrate the actual amount of TA per cell and to determine the ratio of WTA to LTA. In addition, we followed the change of TA length during growth phases, and discovered that a mutant devoid of LTA accumulates the membrane-bound polymerized TA precursor.
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- Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
- Computational and Systems Biology
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