scholarly journals Lipid droplets form a network interconnected by the endoplasmic reticulum through which they equilibrate their proteins

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stéphanie Cottier ◽  
Roger Schneiter

Lipid droplets (LDs) are globular intracellular structures dedicated to the storage of neutral lipids. They are closely associated with the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and are delineated by a monolayer of phospholipids that is continuous with the cytoplasmic leaflet of the ER membrane. LDs contain a specific set of proteins, but how these proteins are targeted to the LD surface is not fully understood. Here we devised a yeast mating-based microscopic readout to monitor the transfer of LD proteins upon zygote formation. The results of this analysis indicate that ER fusion between mating partners is required for transfer of LD proteins and that this transfer is continuous, bidirectional and affects most LDs simultaneously. These observations suggest that LDs do not fuse upon mating of yeast cells, but that they form a network that is interconnected through the ER membrane. Consistent with this, ER-localized LD proteins rapidly move onto LDs of a mating partner and this protein transfer is affected by seipin, a protein important for proper LD biogenesis and the functional connection of LDs with the ER membrane.

2021 ◽  
pp. mbc.E20-09-0590
Author(s):  
Amit S. Joshi ◽  
Joey V. Ragusa ◽  
William A. Prinz ◽  
Sarah Cohen

Lipid droplets (LDs) are neutral lipid-containing organelles enclosed in a single monolayer of phospholipids. LD formation begins with the accumulation of neutral lipids within the bilayer of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane. It is not known how the sites of formation of nascent LDs in the ER membrane are determined. Here we show that multiple C2 domain-containing transmembrane proteins, MCTP1 and MCTP2, are at sites of LD formation in specialized ER subdomains. We show that the transmembrane domain (TMD) of these proteins is similar to a reticulon homology domain. Like reticulons, these proteins tubulate the ER membrane and favor highly curved regions of the ER. Our data indicate that the MCTP TMDs promote LD biogenesis, increasing LD number. MCTPs co-localize with seipin, a protein involved in LD biogenesis, but form more stable microdomains in the ER. The MCTP C2 domains bind charged lipids and regulate LD size, likely by mediating ER-LD contact sites. Together, our data indicate that MCTPs form microdomains within ER tubules that regulate LD biogenesis, size, and ER-LD contacts. Interestingly, MCTP punctae colocalized with other organelles as well, suggesting that these proteins may play a more general role in linking tubular ER to organelle contact sites. [Media: see text] [Media: see text]


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karamat Mohammad ◽  
Paméla Dakik ◽  
Younes Medkour ◽  
Mélissa McAuley ◽  
Darya Mitrofanova ◽  
...  

A disturbed homeostasis of cellular lipids and the resulting lipotoxicity are considered to be key contributors to many human pathologies, including obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been successfully used for uncovering molecular mechanisms through which impaired lipid metabolism causes lipotoxicity and elicits different forms of regulated cell death. Here, we discuss mechanisms of the “liponecrotic” mode of regulated cell death in S. cerevisiae. This mode of regulated cell death can be initiated in response to a brief treatment of yeast with exogenous palmitoleic acid. Such treatment prompts the incorporation of exogenously added palmitoleic acid into phospholipids and neutral lipids. This orchestrates a global remodeling of lipid metabolism and transfer in the endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, lipid droplets, and the plasma membrane. Certain features of such remodeling play essential roles either in committing yeast to liponecrosis or in executing this mode of regulated cell death. We also outline four processes through which yeast cells actively resist liponecrosis by adapting to the cellular stress imposed by palmitoleic acid and maintaining viability. These prosurvival cellular processes are confined in the endoplasmic reticulum, lipid droplets, peroxisomes, autophagosomes, vacuoles, and the cytosol.


2005 ◽  
Vol 169 (6) ◽  
pp. 897-908 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cosima Luedeke ◽  
Stéphanie Buvelot Frei ◽  
Ivo Sbalzarini ◽  
Heinz Schwarz ◽  
Anne Spang ◽  
...  

Polarized cells frequently use diffusion barriers to separate plasma membrane domains. It is unknown whether diffusion barriers also compartmentalize intracellular organelles. We used photobleaching techniques to characterize protein diffusion in the yeast endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Although a soluble protein diffused rapidly throughout the ER lumen, diffusion of ER membrane proteins was restricted at the bud neck. Ultrastructural studies and fluorescence microscopy revealed the presence of a ring of smooth ER at the bud neck. This ER domain and the restriction of diffusion for ER membrane proteins through the bud neck depended on septin function. The membrane-associated protein Bud6 localized to the bud neck in a septin-dependent manner and was required to restrict the diffusion of ER membrane proteins. Our results indicate that Bud6 acts downstream of septins to assemble a fence in the ER membrane at the bud neck. Thus, in polarized yeast cells, diffusion barriers compartmentalize the ER and the plasma membrane along parallel lines.


2015 ◽  
Vol 211 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vineet Choudhary ◽  
Namrata Ojha ◽  
Andy Golden ◽  
William A. Prinz

Lipid droplets (LDs) are found in all cells and play critical roles in lipid metabolism. De novo LD biogenesis occurs in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) but is not well understood. We imaged early stages of LD biogenesis using electron microscopy and found that nascent LDs form lens-like structures that are in the ER membrane, raising the question of how these nascent LDs bud from the ER as they grow. We found that a conserved family of proteins, fat storage-inducing transmembrane (FIT) proteins, is required for proper budding of LDs from the ER. Elimination or reduction of FIT proteins in yeast and higher eukaryotes causes LDs to remain in the ER membrane. Deletion of the single FIT protein in Caenorhabditis elegans is lethal, suggesting that LD budding is an essential process in this organism. Our findings indicated that FIT proteins are necessary to promote budding of nascent LDs from the ER.


Contact ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 251525641876899 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirill Bersuker ◽  
James A. Olzmann

Lipid droplets (LDs) are conserved, endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-derived organelles that act as a dynamic cellular repository for neutral lipids. Numerous studies have examined the composition of LD proteomes by using mass spectrometry to identify proteins present in biochemically isolated buoyant fractions that are enriched in LDs. Although many bona fide LD proteins were identified, high levels of non-LD proteins that contaminate buoyant fractions complicate the detection of true LD proteins. To overcome this problem, we recently developed a proximity-labeling proteomic method to define high-confidence LD proteomes. Moreover, employing this approach, we discovered that ER-associated degradation impacts the composition of LD proteomes by targeting select LD proteins for clearance by the 26S proteasome as they transit between the ER and LDs. These findings implicate the ER as a site of LD protein degradation and underscore the high degree of crosstalk between ER and LDs.


2011 ◽  
Vol 192 (6) ◽  
pp. 1043-1055 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oludotun Adeyo ◽  
Patrick J. Horn ◽  
SungKyung Lee ◽  
Derk D. Binns ◽  
Anita Chandrahas ◽  
...  

Lipins are phosphatidate phosphatases that generate diacylglycerol (DAG). In this study, we report that yeast lipin, Pah1p, controls the formation of cytosolic lipid droplets. Disruption of PAH1 resulted in a 63% decrease in droplet number, although total neutral lipid levels did not change. This was accompanied by an accumulation of neutral lipids in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The droplet biogenesis defect was not a result of alterations in neutral lipid ratios. No droplets were visible in the absence of both PAH1 and steryl acyltransferases when grown in glucose medium, even though the strain produces as much triacylglycerol as wild type. The requirement of PAH1 for normal droplet formation can be bypassed by a knockout of DGK1. Nem1p, the activator of Pah1p, localizes to a single punctum per cell on the ER that is usually next to a droplet, suggesting that it is a site of droplet assembly. Overall, this study provides strong evidence that DAG generated by Pah1p is important for droplet biogenesis.


Author(s):  
Vineet Choudhary ◽  
Roger Schneiter

Lipid droplets (LDs) constitute compartments dedicated to the storage of metabolic energy in the form of neutral lipids. LDs originate from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) with which they maintain close contact throughout their life cycle. These ER–LD junctions facilitate the exchange of both proteins and lipids between these two compartments. In recent years, proteins that are important for the proper formation of LDs and localize to ER–LD junctions have been identified. This junction is unique as it is generally believed to invoke a transition from the ER bilayer membrane to a lipid monolayer that delineates LDs. Proper formation of this junction requires the ordered assembly of proteins and lipids at specialized ER subdomains. Without such a well-ordered assembly of LD biogenesis factors, neutral lipids are synthesized throughout the ER membrane, resulting in the formation of aberrant LDs. Such ectopically formed LDs impact ER and lipid homeostasis, resulting in different types of lipid storage diseases. In response to starvation, the ER–LD junction recruits factors that tether the vacuole to these junctions to facilitate LD degradation. In addition, LDs maintain close contacts with peroxisomes and mitochondria for metabolic channeling of the released fatty acids toward beta-oxidation. In this review, we discuss the function of different components that ensure proper functioning of LD contact sites, their role in lipogenesis and lipolysis, and their relation to lipid storage diseases.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martijn R. Molenaar ◽  
Tsjerk A. Wassenaar ◽  
Kamlesh K. Yadav ◽  
Alexandre Toulmay ◽  
Muriel C. Mari ◽  
...  

AbstractLipid droplets are unique and nearly ubiquitous organelles that store neutral lipids in a hydrophobic core, surrounded by a monolayer of phospholipids. The primary neutral lipids are triacylglycerols and steryl esters. It is not known whether other classes of neutral lipids can form lipid droplets by themselves. Here we show that production of retinyl esters by lecithin:retinol acyl transferase (LRAT) in yeast cells, incapable of producing triacylglycerols and steryl esters, causes the formation of lipid droplets. By electron microscopy, these lipid droplets are morphologically indistinguishable from those in wild-type cells. In silico and in vitro experiments confirmed the propensity of retinyl esters to segregate from membranes and to form lipid droplets. The hydrophobic N-terminus of LRAT displays preferential interactions with retinyl esters in membranes and promotes the formation of large retinyl ester-containing lipid droplets in mammalian cells. Our combined data indicate that the molecular design of LRAT is optimally suited to allow the formation of characteristic large lipid droplets in retinyl ester-storing cells.


Author(s):  
Melanie Kovacs ◽  
Florian Geltinger ◽  
Thomas Verwanger ◽  
Richard Weiss ◽  
Klaus Richter ◽  
...  

Besides their role as a storage for neutral lipids and sterols, there is increasing evidence that lipid droplets (LDs) are involved in cellular detoxification. LDs are in close contact to a broad variety of organelles where protein- and lipid exchange is mediated. Mitochondria as a main driver of the aging process produce reactive oxygen species (ROS), which damage several cellular components. LDs as highly dynamic organelles mediate a potent detoxification mechanism by taking up toxic lipids and proteins. A stimulation of LDs induced by the simultaneously overexpression of Lro1p and Dga1p (both encoding acyltransferases) prolongs the chronological as well as the replicative lifespan of yeast cells. The increased number of LDs reduces mitochondrial fragmentation as well as mitochondrial ROS production, both phenotypes that are signs of aging. Strains with an altered LD content or morphology as in the sei1∆ or lro1∆ mutant lead to a reduced replicative lifespan. In a yeast strain defective for the LON protease Pim1p, which showed an enhanced ROS production, increased doubling time and an altered mitochondrial morphology, a LRO1 overexpression resulted in a partially reversion of this “premature aging” phenotype.


2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (10) ◽  
pp. e2017205118
Author(s):  
Valeria Zoni ◽  
Rasha Khaddaj ◽  
Ivan Lukmantara ◽  
Wataru Shinoda ◽  
Hongyuan Yang ◽  
...  

Lipid droplets (LDs) are intracellular organelles responsible for lipid storage, and they emerge from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) upon the accumulation of neutral lipids, mostly triglycerides (TG), between the two leaflets of the ER membrane. LD biogenesis takes place at ER sites that are marked by the protein seipin, which subsequently recruits additional proteins to catalyze LD formation. Deletion of seipin, however, does not abolish LD biogenesis, and its precise role in controlling LD assembly remains unclear. Here, we use molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the molecular mechanism through which seipin promotes LD formation. We find that seipin clusters TG, as well as its precursor diacylglycerol, inside its unconventional ring-like oligomeric structure and that both its luminal and transmembrane regions contribute to this process. This mechanism is abolished upon mutations of polar residues involved in protein–TG interactions into hydrophobic residues. Our results suggest that seipin remodels the membrane of specific ER sites to prime them for LD biogenesis.


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