title: The SNARE machinery is involved in apical plasma membrane trafficking in MDCK cells.
abstract: We have investigated the controversial involvement of components of the SNARE (soluble N-ethyl maleimide-sensitive factor [NSF] attachment protein [SNAP] receptor) machinery in membrane traffic to the apical plasma membrane of polarized epithelial (MDCK) cells. Overexpression of syntaxin 3, but not of syntaxins 2 or 4, caused an inhibition of TGN to apical transport and apical recycling, and leads to an accumulation of small vesicles underneath the apical plasma membrane. All other tested transport steps were unaffected by syntaxin 3 overexpression. Botulinum neurotoxin E, which cleaves SNAP-23, and antibodies against alpha-SNAP inhibit both TGN to apical and basolateral transport in a reconstituted in vitro system. In contrast, we find no evidence for an involvement of N-ethyl maleimide-sensitive factor in TGN to apical transport, whereas basolateral transport is NSF-dependent. We conclude that syntaxin 3, SNAP-23, and alpha-SNAP are involved in apical membrane fusion. These results demonstrate that vesicle fusion with the apical plasma membrane does not use a mechanism that is entirely unrelated to other cellular membrane fusion events, but uses isoforms of components of the SNARE machinery, which suggests that they play a role in providing specificity to polarized membrane traffic.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Biochemistry and Biophysics, Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143-0452, USA.
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Low
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Chapin
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wimmer
authors.forename: S W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Whiteheart
authors.forename: L G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Kömüves
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Mostov
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Weimbs
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001692:Biological Transport; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002460:Cell Line; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism*; D002463:Cell Membrane Permeability; D016764:Cell Polarity; D018699:Coated Vesicles / Q000378:metabolism; D004285:Dogs; D004705:Endocytosis; D007070:Immunoglobulin A / Q000378:metabolism; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D052066:N-Ethylmaleimide-Sensitive Proteins; D050765:Qa-SNARE Proteins; D050766:Qb-SNARE Proteins; D050767:Qc-SNARE Proteins; D050600:SNARE Proteins; D052067:Soluble N-Ethylmaleimide-Sensitive Factor Attachment Proteins; D033921:Vesicular Transport Proteins
chemical_list: D002352:Carrier Proteins; D007070:Immunoglobulin A; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D050765:Qa-SNARE Proteins; D050766:Qb-SNARE Proteins; D050767:Qc-SNARE Proteins; C100493:SNAP23 protein, human; D050600:SNARE Proteins; D052067:Soluble N-Ethylmaleimide-Sensitive Factor Attachment Proteins; D033921:Vesicular Transport Proteins; D052066:N-Ethylmaleimide-Sensitive Proteins