@article{SchneiderKleinMielichSuessetal.2015, author = {Schneider, Johannes and Klein, Teresa and Mielich-S{\"u}ss, Benjamin and Koch, Gudrun and Franke, Christian and Kuipers, Oskar P. and Kov{\´a}cs, {\´A}kos T. and Sauer, Markus and Lopez, Daniel}, title = {Spatio-temporal Remodeling of Functional Membrane Microdomains Organizes the Signaling Networks of a Bacterium}, series = {PLoS Genetics}, volume = {11}, journal = {PLoS Genetics}, number = {4}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pgen.1005140}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-125577}, pages = {e1005140}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Lipid rafts are membrane microdomains specialized in the regulation of numerous cellular processes related to membrane organization, as diverse as signal transduction, protein sorting, membrane trafficking or pathogen invasion. It has been proposed that this functional diversity would require a heterogeneous population of raft domains with varying compositions. However, a mechanism for such diversification is not known. We recently discovered that bacterial membranes organize their signal transduction pathways in functional membrane microdomains (FMMs) that are structurally and functionally similar to the eukaryotic lipid rafts. In this report, we took advantage of the tractability of the prokaryotic model Bacillus subtilis to provide evidence for the coexistence of two distinct families of FMMs in bacterial membranes, displaying a distinctive distribution of proteins specialized in different biological processes. One family of microdomains harbors the scaffolding flotillin protein FloA that selectively tethers proteins specialized in regulating cell envelope turnover and primary metabolism. A second population of microdomains containing the two scaffolding flotillins, FloA and FloT, arises exclusively at later stages of cell growth and specializes in adaptation of cells to stationary phase. Importantly, the diversification of membrane microdomains does not occur arbitrarily. We discovered that bacterial cells control the spatio-temporal remodeling of microdomains by restricting the activation of FloT expression to stationary phase. This regulation ensures a sequential assembly of functionally specialized membrane microdomains to strategically organize signaling networks at the right time during the lifespan of a bacterium.}, language = {en} } @article{AndronicShirakashiPickeletal.2015, author = {Andronic, Joseph and Shirakashi, Ryo and Pickel, Simone U. and Westerling, Katherine M. and Klein, Teresa and Holm, Thorge and Sauer, Markus and Sukhorukov, Vladimir L.}, title = {Hypotonic Activation of the Myo-Inositol Transporter SLC5A3 in HEK293 Cells Probed by Cell Volumetry, Confocal and Super-Resolution Microscopy}, series = {PLoS One}, volume = {10}, journal = {PLoS One}, number = {3}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0119990}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-126408}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Swelling-activated pathways for myo-inositol, one of the most abundant organic osmolytes in mammalian cells, have not yet been identified. The present study explores the SLC5A3 protein as a possible transporter of myo-inositol in hyponically swollen HEK293 cells. To address this issue, we examined the relationship between the hypotonicity-induced changes in plasma membrane permeability to myo-inositol Pino [m/s] and expression/localization of SLC5A3. Pino values were determined by cell volumetry over a wide tonicity range (100-275 mOsm) in myo-inositol-substituted solutions. While being negligible under mild hypotonicity (200-275 mOsm), Pino grew rapidly at osmolalities below 200 mOsm to reach a maximum of ∼3 nm/s at 100-125 mOsm, as indicated by fast cell swelling due to myo-inositol influx. The increase in Pino resulted most likely from the hypotonicity-mediated incorporation of cytosolic SLC5A3 into the plasma membrane, as revealed by confocal fluorescence microscopy of cells expressing EGFP-tagged SLC5A3 and super-resolution imaging of immunostained SLC5A3 by direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (dSTORM). dSTORM in hypotonic cells revealed a surface density of membrane-associated SLC5A3 proteins of 200-2000 localizations/μm2. Assuming SLC5A3 to be the major path for myo-inositol, a turnover rate of 80-800 myo-inositol molecules per second for a single transporter protein was estimated from combined volumetric and dSTORM data. Hypotonic stress also caused a significant upregulation of SLC5A3 gene expression as detected by semiquantitative RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. In summary, our data provide first evidence for swelling-mediated activation of SLC5A3 thus suggesting a functional role of this transporter in hypotonic volume regulation of mammalian cells.}, language = {en} }