Abstract

Membrane proteins with multiple transmembrane domains play critical roles in cell physiology, but little is known about the machinery coordinating their biogenesis at the endoplasmic reticulum. Here we describe a ~360 kDa ribosome-associated complex comprising the core Sec61 channel and five accessory factors: TMCO1, CCDC47 and the Nicalin-TMEM147-NOMO complex. Cryo-electron microscopy reveals a large assembly at the ribosome exit tunnel organized around a central membrane cavity. Similar to protein-conducting channels that facilitate movement of transmembrane segments, cytosolic and luminal funnels in TMCO1 and TMEM147, respectively, suggest routes into the central membrane cavity. High-throughput mRNA sequencing shows selective translocon engagement with hundreds of different multi-pass membrane proteins. Consistent with a role in multi-pass membrane protein biogenesis, cells lacking different accessory components show reduced levels of one such client, the glutamate transporter EAAT1. These results identify a new human translocon and provide a molecular framework for understanding its role in multi-pass membrane protein biogenesis.

Data availability

Annotated spectra corresponding to the reported ribosome-translocon cross-links are available at the MS-Viewer website (http://msviewer.ucsf.edu/prospector/cgi- bin/msform.cgi?form=msviewer) with the following accession keys: HCD data: 7s2yb4zfjw and ETD data: vdibnsypj7. Cryo-EM maps have been deposited in the Electron Microscopy Data Bank with accession codes: EMD-21426 (Map 1), EMD-21427 (Map 2) and EMD-21435 (Map 3). Coordinates for the human 60S-translocon complex have been deposited in the Protein Data Bank with accession code 6W6L. mRNA sequencing data have been deposited in Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) under accession number GSE134027.

The following data sets were generated

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Philip T McGilvray

    Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. S Andre Anghel

    Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Arunkumar Sundaram

    Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Frank Zhong

    Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  5. Michael J Trnka

    Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-8808-5146
  6. James R Fuller

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9029-0923
  7. Hong Hu

    Center for Research Informatics,, University of Chicago, Chicago, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  8. Alma L Burlingame

    Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, United States
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  9. Robert J Keenan

    Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, United States
    For correspondence
    bkeenan@uchicago.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-1466-0889

Funding

National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIH R01 GM130051)

  • Robert J Keenan

National Eye Institute (NIH R21 EY026719)

  • Robert J Keenan

Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds (PhD fellowship)

  • S Andre Anghel

National Institute of General Medical Sciences (T32 GM007183)

  • Philip T McGilvray
  • Frank Zhong

Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation

  • Alma L Burlingame

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2020, McGilvray 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

  • 11,420
    views
  • 1,447
    downloads
  • 110
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Philip T McGilvray
  2. S Andre Anghel
  3. Arunkumar Sundaram
  4. Frank Zhong
  5. Michael J Trnka
  6. James R Fuller
  7. Hong Hu
  8. Alma L Burlingame
  9. Robert J Keenan
(2020)
An ER translocon for multi-pass membrane protein biogenesis
eLife 9:e56889.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56889

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56889

Further reading

    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
    Joar Esteban Pinto Torres, Mathieu Claes ... Yann G-J Sterckx
    Research Article

    African trypanosomes are the causative agents of neglected tropical diseases affecting both humans and livestock. Disease control is highly challenging due to an increasing number of drug treatment failures. African trypanosomes are extracellular, blood-borne parasites that mainly rely on glycolysis for their energy metabolism within the mammalian host. Trypanosomal glycolytic enzymes are therefore of interest for the development of trypanocidal drugs. Here, we report the serendipitous discovery of a camelid single-domain antibody (sdAb aka Nanobody) that selectively inhibits the enzymatic activity of trypanosomatid (but not host) pyruvate kinases through an allosteric mechanism. By combining enzyme kinetics, biophysics, structural biology, and transgenic parasite survival assays, we provide a proof-of-principle that the sdAb-mediated enzyme inhibition negatively impacts parasite fitness and growth.

    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    Jianheng Fox Liu, Ben R Hawley ... Samie R Jaffrey
    Tools and Resources

    N 6,2’-O-dimethyladenosine (m6Am) is a modified nucleotide located at the first transcribed position in mRNA and snRNA that is essential for diverse physiological processes. m6Am mapping methods assume each gene uses a single start nucleotide. However, gene transcription usually involves multiple start sites, generating numerous 5’ isoforms. Thus, gene-level annotations cannot capture the diversity of m6Am modification in the transcriptome. Here, we describe CROWN-seq, which simultaneously identifies transcription-start nucleotides and quantifies m6Am stoichiometry for each 5’ isoform that initiates with adenosine. Using CROWN-seq, we map the m6Am landscape in nine human cell lines. Our findings reveal that m6Am is nearly always a high stoichiometry modification, with only a small subset of cellular mRNAs showing lower m6Am stoichiometry. We find that m6Am is associated with increased transcript expression and provide evidence that m6Am may be linked to transcription initiation associated with specific promoter sequences and initiation mechanisms. These data suggest a potential new function for m6Am in influencing transcription.