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Molecular & Cellular Proteomics 5:1082-1094, 2006.
© 2006 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.
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From the
Abteilung Molekulare Entwicklungsbiologie and ¶ Abteilung Neurobiologie, Max-Planck-Institut für biophysikalische Chemie, Am Fassberg 11, 37077 Göttingen, Germany || Abteilung Zellbiologie, Gesellschaft für Biotechnologische Forschung GBF, Mascheroder Weg 1, 38124 Braunschweig, Germany
| ABSTRACT |
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Given the simple overall structure of lipid droplets, it is tempting to speculate that differential occupation of a heterogeneous population of lipid droplets by associated proteins enables the versatility of lipid droplet biology. Along these lines, several lipid droplet proteomic screens were performed in yeast, mammalian tissue culture cells, and the mouse mammary gland (5, 79). Based on the characteristics of the identified lipid droplet proteins, these organelles have been reported to be interconnected with various cellular compartments including for example the cytoskeleton and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)1 (10, 11). In addition, lipid droplets were proposed to be active players in various cellular processes such as vesicular transport and lipid trafficking (9). However, the full complexity of the lipid droplet proteome awaits identification and subsequent functional characterization of the lipid droplet-associated proteins.
Among the few well studied members of the lipid droplet proteome are mammalian members of the PAT domain protein family (composed of Perilipin, ADRP, and TIP47), which are crucial for controlling lipid droplet function in organismal energy homeostasis in various ways (4, 12, 13). ADRP, for example, is involved in intercellular neutral lipid transport (14), whereas Perilipin modulates the rate of adipocyte lipolysis by acting both as a barrier and attachment site for lipases in a phosphorylation-dependent manner. This way, Perilipin facilitates basal and stimulated lipolysis (15, 16). Recently this regulatory function of lipid droplet-associated PAT domain proteins for the organismal energy storage was shown to be evolutionarily conserved because the Perilipin homologue LSD-2 of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster acts as a Perilipin-like regulator of organismal energy storage (17, 18). Additionally Drosophila LSD-2 has been demonstrated to control directed lipid droplet transport in cooperation with the Klarsicht protein (10). These findings suggest that lipid droplet-associated proteins empower lipid droplet involvement in various cellular processes in both vertebrates and invertebrates.
To gain a more comprehensive view on constitutive lipid droplet-resident proteins of Drosophila third instar fat body cells and to compare the lipid droplet subproteomes of individuals that are genetically predisposed to obesity or leanness, we used nano-LC-MS/MS to analyze highly enriched lipid droplets. Our findings reveal an unexpected high complexity of the constitutive lipid droplet proteome, implicating this organelle in a variety of biological processes, and we observed only a few differences in the global lipid droplet proteomes from individuals predisposed to fat storage abnormalities. Identifications were supplemented by intracellular localization studies of representative lipid droplet proteins both in tissue culture cells and in transgenic animals. The localization pattern of proteins on subsets of lipid droplets suggests a functional diversification within the lipid droplet population of a cell. These subsets cannot be resolved by global subcellular proteomics but rather require the functional characterization of individual proteins by using the powerful genetic and cell biological tools that are established for D. melanogaster.
| EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES |
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Primer sequences were flanked with 5' NotI and 3' AscI restriction enzyme sites for subsequent cloning into the pENTR/TOPO D vector for Gateway recombination subcloning (Invitrogen). For tissue culture expression the entry vectors were recombined with a modified pBluescript vector containing the necessary att sites and sequences encoding either a C-terminal EGFP or red fluorescent protein under the control of a ubiquitin promoter. For germ line-transformed transgenic Drosophila the same entry clones were recombined with the pTWG expression vector obtained from the Drosophila Genomics Resource Centre (dgrc.cgb.indiana.edu). Transgenic fly stocks were generated by standard germ line transformation.
Lipid Droplet Fractionation
For each sucrose gradient 6075 fat bodies from wandering late third instar larvae were hand-dissected in PBS on ice. The dissected fat bodies were transferred into 100 µl of fat body buffer (FBB; 10 mM HEPES, pH 7.6, 10 mM KCl, 0.1 mM EDTA, 0.1 mM EGTA, and 1 mM DTT) including protease inhibitors (EDTA-free Complete protease inhibitors, Roche Diagnostics). Fat bodies were frozen and kept at 80 °C until use. Lysis of the fat bodies was performed by mild bath sonication (Bandelin Sonorex RK100; three to six pulses of 10 s each in a volume of 30 µl of FBB/fat body) until dispersion of fat bodies. Lipid droplets were basically purified as described by Yu et al. (21). In brief, after sonication the cellular debris were pelleted by centrifugation at 3000 x g for 8 min. The resulting postnuclear supernatant was adjusted to a volume of 3 ml with FBB, mixed with an equal volume of FBB including 1.08 M sucrose, and afterward transferred into a 12-ml polyallomer ultracentrifugation tube (Beckman Instruments). It was then sequentially overlaid with 2 ml of 0.27 and 0.135 M sucrose each in FBB and top solution (FBB only). The gradient was centrifuged for 1.5 h at 4 °C at 30,000 rpm (>100,000 x g). After the run eight 1.5-ml fractions were collected by pipetting from top to bottom: the buoyant lipid droplets (fractions F1 and F2), the midzone (F3 and F4), and the cytosol (F5F8). The protein content of 50 µl of each fraction was subsequently measured using the Pierce BCA assay kit (Perbio Science, Bonn, Germany) according to the manufacturers instructions. The desired protein amount of the respective fraction was subsequently precipitated using the method of Wessel and Flügge (22), and protein pellets were either frozen at 20 °C or solubilized in the respective buffer.
Electron Microscopy
Electron microscopy of purified lipid droplets using Epon embedding was carried out as described previously (23, 24). In brief, the topmost 500 µl of density gradient centrifugation fraction F1 (see above) was used for embedding. The fraction was fixed by 2% glutaraldehyde for 60 min at room temperature and immobilized with 2% agarose in cacodylate buffer at pH 7.4. The agarose was cubed and further fixed with 1% osmium tetroxide in 0.1 M cacodylate buffer (pH 7.4) at room temperature. After a pre-embedding staining with 1% uranyl acetate, samples were dehydrated with an ethanol series and embedded in Agar 100 (equivalent to Epon). Thin sections (60 nm) were again counterstained with uranyl acetate and lead citrate and examined using a Philips CM 120 BioTwin transmission electron microscope (Philips Inc., Eindhoven, The Netherlands). Images were taken with a 1024 x 1024 pixel slow scan charge-coupled device camera (GATAN, Inc., Munich, Germany). Tissues were embedded as described above without immobilization in agar prior to the fixation.
Western Blot Analysis
Equal amounts of protein from the sucrose gradient were precipitated using the method of Wessel and Flügge (22). Protein separation was carried out using standard SDS-PAGE prior to transfer of the proteins onto PVDF membrane (Immobilon P, Millipore, Schwalbach, Germany). The membrane was washed with PBS including 0.1% Tween 20 (PBT), and blocking was carried out overnight with 5% BSA in PBT at 4 °C. Primary antibodies detecting LSD-2 (dilution, 1:3000 (18)) and eIF-4A (dilution, 1:5000 (25)) were used in PBT including 2.5% BSA. Secondary antibodies conjugated to peroxidase (Perbio Science) were used in a dilution of 1:8000 under otherwise identical conditions. Results were visualized using the Super Signal West Pico ECL system (Perbio Science) and Kodak BioMax XAR-films (Eastman Kodak Co.). For reprobing, bound antibodies were removed from the membrane by Restore Western blot stripping solution (Amersham Biosciences) according to the manufacturers instructions.
LC-MS/MS of Precipitated Lipid Droplet Proteins
For mass spectrometry analyses the precipitated proteins were resolved in SDS sample buffer and separated by mini-SDS-PAGE, and proteins were stained with Coomassie. Each gel lane was cut reproducibly into three sections (>80, 5080, and <50 kDa) to decrease the complexity of the individual samples.
Individual gel sections were sliced in small cubes and washed with Milli-Q water for 5 min followed by two-step dehydration in 50 and 100% ACN, respectively. Subsequently the gel pieces were rehydrated in 100 mM NH4HCO3 (3x volume of rehydrated gel), and the dehydration procedure was repeated. The gel pieces were then completely dried in a SpeedVac concentrator and rehydrated with digestion buffer (20 µg/ml sequencing grade modified porcine trypsin (Promega, Madison, WI), 50 mM NH4HCO3, 10% ACN) followed by overnight digestion at 37 °C. Peptides were extracted from the gel pieces as described previously in Wehmhöner et al. (26). Extracted peptides were purified using ZipTip C18 microcolumns (Millipore, Billerica, MA) following the manufacturers instructions. Digests were lyophilized in a SpeedVac concentrator and resolubilized in 0.1% TFA. The reverse phase HPLC separation of the peptide samples was performed using a bioinert Ultimate nano-HPLC system (Dionex, Sunnyvale, CA). 10 µl of each sample (up to 500 ng) was injected, and peptides were purified and concentrated on a C18 PepMap precolumn (0.3-mm inner diameter x 5 mm, 100-Å pore size, 3-µm particle size, Dionex) at a flow rate of 30 µl/min 0.1% TFA. Subsequently peptides were separated on an analytical 75-µm inner diameter x 150-mm C18 PepMap column (Dionex, 100-Å pore size, 3-µm particle size) using a 120-min gradient at a column flow rate of 250 nl/min. The acetonitrile gradient (Solution A: 0.1% formic acid, 5% ACN; Solution B: 0.1% formic acid, 80% ACN) started at 5% and ended at 60% B.
MS and MS/MS data were acquired using a tandem mass spectrometer (Q-TOF IITM, Waters, Milford, MA). Doubly and triply charged peptide ions were automatically chosen data-dependently by the MassLynx software (Waters) and fragmented for a maximum of 18 s for each component. MS data were automatically processed, and peak lists for database searches were generated by the MassLynx software (MassLynx 4.0, Mass Measure All, 2 x Savitzky Golay Smooth Window 5, minimum peak width at half-height 5). Database searches were carried out with an in-house MASCOT server (Version 2.1; Matrix Science) using a Drosophila protein database (FlyBase Version 4.2; 19,178 sequences, 10,826,103 residues; flybase.bio.indiana.edu). The assessment of predicted protein identifications was based on the MASCOT default significance criteria (score at least 28 calculated for p < 0.05). To avoid false positive identifications that can occur by the cumulation of low scoring peptides we exclusively accepted rank one peptide database matches that achieved the default significance criteria. Furthermore protein identifications with total scores less then 56 were either verified manually or rejected. Iterative calibration algorithms were applied on the basis of significantly identified peptides to achieve an average absolute mass accuracy of better than 50 ppm.
Three independent preparations were carried out designated as I, II, and III in Table II and supplemental tables. The supplemental tables provide detailed information of all individual LC-MS/MS experiments and the derived protein identifications. Results obtained from the different gel sections are indicated as "upper" (>80 kDa), "middle" (5080 kDa) and "lower" (<50 kDa). The first entry of each section hyperlinks the supplemental data of each investigated gel section with the corresponding copy of the original MASCOT result report also comprising links to labeled MS/MS spectra from all peptides.
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Tissue Culture Transfection
Tissue culture experiments for the investigation of the localization of selected lipid droplet candidate proteins were performed using Schneider S2 cells (30) in a 25 °C incubator using standard procedures.
Cells almost reaching confluence were diluted to a final cell density of 25 x 106 cells/ml. 1.5 ml of this cell suspension was distributed in each well of 6-well plates (Nunc, Wiesbaden, Germany) and incubated for 1824 h to recover. Transfections were performed using the Lipofectamine derivative Effectene (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany) according to the manufacturers instructions. After transfection, the cells were incubated for 48 h prior to feeding with 400 µM oleic acid (Sigma) to promote lipid droplet generation (31). After incubation for an additional 1218 h the cells were stained and imaged.
Confocal Microscopy
Cells or tissue was fixed using buffer B (5% paraformaldehyde, pH 6.8, 16.7 mM KH2 PO4/K2HPO4, 75 mM KCl, 25 mM NaCl, 3.3 mM MgCl2) for 510 min. After washing with PBT, the specimens were stained for lipid droplets by adding 1 µl of the diluted Nile Red stock solution (1 mg/ml stock solution diluted 1:500 in PBT; Molecular Probes, Leiden, The Netherlands)/ml of PBT. Staining was performed for 3 min before the specimen was mounted using Prolong Antifade solution (Molecular Probes). Imaging was done using a Leica TCS SP2 confocal microscope (Leica Microsystems, Bensheim, Germany). Images were processed using the Macintosh version of Adobe Photoshop 5.0.
| RESULTS |
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Fractionation by one-dimensional SDS-PAGE predicted a high complexity of the lipid droplet proteome represented by more than 80 separable protein bands (Fig. 1G). Nano-LC-MS/MS measurements on triplicate samples from fat bodies of larvae of four different genotypes identified a total of 248 proteins (supplemental tables; for details of the analysis see "Experimental Procedures"). In addition to lipid droplet preparations from wild type larvae, samples from mutant larvae with genetic predisposition for obesity (adp60 (19), induced Lsd-2:EGFP (18), or leanness (Lsd-251 (18))) were examined. Individual measurements with independent samples showed that about 68% of the identified proteins were reproducibly found and that the remaining 32% of identified proteins varied most likely due to differences in their abundance and dependence on the detection sensitivity. Based on the latter, we also considered single protein detections as potentially meaningful.
Of the 248 proteins identified, 127 proteins were found in wild type larvae, 137 were found in adp60 mutant larvae, 153 were found in induced Lsd-2:EGFP mutant larvae, and 159 were found in Lsd-251 mutant larvae. Of those proteins two subclasses (class A and class B) could be formed. Class A contains 168 proteins that were reproducibly identified in separate lipid droplet preparations (see Table II; for the complete list of proteins see supplemental tables). This class includes 113 proteins obtained from wild type larvae, 116 proteins of adp60 mutants, 135 proteins of Lsd-251 mutants, and 132 proteins of induced Lsd-2:EGFP mutant larvae. Class B consists of the 80 proteins that were identified only once (see supplemental tables).
Fig. 2A depicts the distribution of the identified proteins for each genotype analyzed. A total of 60 proteins were common to the lipid droplet proteome of the larvae irrespective of their genotype. We refer to them as members of the constitutive lipid droplet proteome. Most other proteins were present in the subproteomes obtained from larvae of at least two different genotypes, and only a few proteins were reproducibly identified in the proteome of larvae with a distinct genotype (see supplemental tables). They include the Regucalcin protein (Table II), which was detected in the lipid droplet proteome of adp60 mutant larvae only. Interestingly a vertebrate homologue of Regucalcin, called senescence marker protein-30 (SMP30), was recently shown to affect cellular lipid droplets, organismal lipid storage, body weight, and lifespan in mice (32). Taken together, the identified proteins imply a high complexity of the lipid droplet proteome. In addition, the findings suggest that genotype-specific differences, which lead to obesity or leanness, are not reflected in qualitative differences in the respective lipid droplet proteomes.
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The majority of lipid droplet-associated proteins are involved in cellular metabolism (GO:0044237; class A: 67%, class B: 51%; Fig. 2B and supplemental tables). In addition, cellular functions such as transport processes (GO:0006810; class A: 8%, class B: 16%), cell organization and cell biogenesis (GO:0016043; class A: 4%, class B: 1%) are well represented, reflecting the active character of these organelles in addition to lipid metabolism (GO:0006629; class A: 3%, class B: 1%). These observations suggest that the surface of lipid droplets participates in various and diverse metabolic as well as cellular processes.
The view of lipid droplets as compartments with functional specialization in particular although diverse biological processes is supported by GOstat algorithm analysis. This type of analysis allows for the identification of over- and underrepresented GO terms in a test set of proteins as compared with the whole Drosophila proteome (34). Significantly enriched and depleted GO terms could be identified (p < 0.05; Fig. 2C). In addition to the previously mentioned general metabolism-associated GO term 0044237 (=cellular metabolism) class A contains several overrepresented lipid metabolism-associated GO terms (0044255 = cellular lipid metabolism, 0006631 = fatty acid metabolism, 0006084 = acetyl-CoA metabolism, 0006629 = lipid metabolism, 0008610 = lipid biosynthesis, and 0006633 = fatty acid biosynthesis). Few GO terms are significantly underrepresented in class A, including regulatory proteins that are likely to be present only in small amounts and might be localized specifically at the site of action (e.g. GO:0051244 = regulation of cellular physiological processes; Fig. 2C).
In accordance with the role of lipid droplets as a fat storage compartment, various enzymes involved in fatty acid/lipid metabolism were found. They include an acetyl-CoA carboxylase (CG11198), ATP-citrate lyase (CG8322), esterases/lipases, and enzymes modifying short as well as long chain fatty acids (for details see Table II and supplemental tables). Other enzymes of annotated function, such as several short chain dehydrogenases, cannot be assigned to a particular biological process. However, identification of multiple proteins with predicted lipid binding function such as CG9342, CG5958, or the sterol carrier protein 2 (SCP2) emphasize a possible role of lipid droplets in intra- or intercellular lipid trafficking (Table II).
The dynamic character of the lipid droplet compartment is further supported by the identification of several members of the Rab protein family (Rabs 2, 5 and 6; supplemental tables). Moreover the identification of proteins implicated in the trafficking and protein insertion into the ER membrane suggests that, like in plants, a portion of the lipid droplet-associated proteins are localized to the outer leaflet of the ER membrane co-translationally (35). This hemimembrane is proposed to provide the monolayer surface of the lipid droplets (1, 36). Such proteins could support the persisting close vicinity of some lipid droplets to the endoplasmic reticulum (data not shown). Furthermore several proteins with predicted chaperone function, including protein-disulfide isomerase (PDI), calreticulin, and members of the heat shock protein family, were identified. Functional relevance of chaperone proteins on lipid droplets remains elusive. However, it is interesting to note that homologues of several of these proteins were also identified in recently characterized mammalian lipid droplet proteomes (5, 8). A total of 30 of the identified lipid droplet proteins (12%) did not allow classification based on a GO annotation in the category Biological Process, and the molecular function of 17 among them (7% of all proteins) is completely unknown. These proteins will be the subject of future studies.
Functional Analysis of Selected Lipid Droplet Proteins in Vivo
To confirm the lipid droplet association of some of the identified proteins, we tested the localization of fusion proteins containing an enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) tag that were expressed either in transfected Drosophila Schneider S2 cells (30) or in the fat body of transgenic flies.
S2 cells exposed to oleic acid in the culture medium accumulate intracellular lipid storage droplets. Control experiments indicated that they are able to bind fluorescently tagged variants of the PAT domain proteins LSD-1 and LSD-2 (Fig. 3A) as previously shown in transgenic flies (18, 37). We therefore used this experimental system to examine the subcellular localization of three proteins, the
esterase CG1112, the stomatin-like protein CG10691, and the short chain dehydrogenase CG2254. CG1112 was classified as a constitutive lipid droplet-associated protein, CG10691 was identified in three of four genotypes analyzed, whereas CG2254 was found in adp60 mutant and in induced Lsd-2:EGFP mutant larvae only (Table II; for gene/protein predictions see Ref. 38). Fig. 3, B and C, show that in tissue culture cells, CG1112 and CG10691 reside in the cytoplasm but also associate with a subset of lipid droplets. In contrast, CG2254 is solely associated with lipid droplets (Fig. 3D), and as observed with CG1112 and CG10691, it also labels only a subset of the droplets (Fig. 3E). This observation suggests that the composition of the protein coat of lipid droplets within a given cell involves different proteins.
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| DISCUSSION |
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The control experiments showed no apparent contaminations (Fig. 1, DF) except for traces of unidentified membrane structures that could have been derived from disrupted mitochondria or endoplasmic reticulum during the purification procedure. The SDS-PAGE showed a high degree of complexity of the larval lipid droplet-associated proteome (Fig. 1G) as has been observed for the embryonic lipid droplet subproteome (10). Comparative proteomics was used to reveal qualitative differences between the droplet proteome compositions of wild type and mutant larval fat body cells, which give rise to lean and obese individuals, respectively. Increasing the stringency criteria to a point where only repeatedly identified proteins were considered (class A), only a few genotype-specific proteins could be identified. This finding suggests that the mutant phenotype, i.e. storing high or low amounts of fat, cannot be defined through distinct droplet-associated marker proteins but rather by their relative abundance or through posttranslational modifications of such proteins not addressed in our present study. We note, however, that the SMP30 homologue Regucalcin, identified only in the adp60 mutant larvae, could possibly serve as marker protein for adipose mutant fat body cell lipid droplets. This assumption seems reasonable in view of the fact that both SMP30 knock-out mutant mice and adp60 mutant flies accumulate fat and become obese (19, 32). The lack of more pronounced differences in the pattern of proteins from wild type and mutant lipid droplets could also be attributed to the fact that, during the larval stage examined, the mutants under study are only predisposed for fat accumulation abnormalities that become fully apparent during adulthood. Genotype-specific differences in the lipid droplet subproteome composition might therefore be more pronounced during the adult stage.
Previous lipid droplet proteomic screens with other cellular systems such as yeast (7), mammalian mammary epithelial tissue (11), and several mammalian tissue culture cells (5, 8, 39) revealed in total some hundred proteins with surprisingly little overlap concerning the protein compositions revealed by the different screens. Comparing the outcome of the analysis presented here reveals nevertheless a total of 38 proteins of which homologues were also identified in these earlier screens. They include the PAT domain protein family members LSD-1 and LSD-2, various lipid-metabolizing proteins such as acetyl-CoA carboxylase, several esterases, and vesicle trafficking-associated proteins of the Rab family and chaperones (see Table II and supplemental tables).
A set of common proteins among the lipid droplet proteomes of cells as different as yeast, Drosophila fat body, and several types of mammalian cells suggest that lipid droplets contain a constitutive subproteome that can be complemented by a varying number of species-, stage-, and/or cell-specific proteins. Furthermore even within a given cell, different lipid droplet populations might reflect different metabolic states and/or subpopulations of droplets that even may serve other functions than fat storage. The latter speculation is consistent with the recent finding that the PAT domain protein LSD-2 of Drosophila not only serves a Perilipin-like function in adult fat body cells but also operates in the control of embryonic lipid droplet transport along the cytoskeleton (10). An active role in vesicle trafficking is also supported by the identification of Rab proteins in the lipid droplet subproteome (supplemental tables and Refs. 9, 40, and 41) as well as the GO term analysis predicting 10% of the identified proteins to be implicated in cellular transport (Fig. 2B).
We also identified the cytoplasmic membrane-derived receptor fat body protein 1 (FBP1) together with its internalized ligand, the storage protein complex consisting of the
, ß, and
subunits of the larval serum protein 1 (LSP1) (Table II). The storage protein complex is internalized in response to the ecdysone pulse in late third instar larvae and serves as a reservoir for amino acids and energy during metamorphosis (42). It is indeed puzzling to find that the cytoplasmic membrane-derived FBP1 receptor should be associated with lipid droplets. However, several recent studies on lipid droplet-associated proteins from different vertebrate cell lines also identified lipid droplet-associated receptors and transmembrane proteins such as stomatin (5) and the Big Stanniocalcin hormone receptor (43). Collectively these findings support the proposal that intracellular transport processes as well as different storage factors and storage compartments are functionally connected within the cell by their adherence to lipid droplets. It will be interesting to learn how their association is mechanistically possible.
Mitochondrial proteins have been described as members of the lipid droplet proteome in this study and others (5). However, it cannot be excluded that they represent false positive identifications as these organelles are (i) highly abundant in fat storage tissue, (ii) found in close association with lipid droplets, and (iii) are easily disrupted during the purification procedure (44,45). Along those lines of arguments, also the identified ribosomal proteins might be retained from the ER where at least some lipid droplet-associated proteins seem to become inserted via the SRP/translocon machinery. The mechanism has already been demonstrated for plant oleosin proteins (35). On the other hand, our study identified components of the SRP/translocon machinery (46) among the lipid droplet-associated proteins as well as other typical ER-bound proteins such as PDI and calreticulin that were also identified in other lipid droplet proteome screens (1, 8). Thus, our preparations may also contain material of ER origin. Whether this finding supports the hypothesis that the lipid droplets are derived from the ER (2) or reflects the tight association of droplets with the ER or whether these proteins are due to undetected ER contaminations within the droplet fraction remains to be shown.
It is worth mentioning, however, that ribosomes and associated mRNA were shown previously to associate with the surface of lipid droplet like "lipid bodies" of mast cells (47). Thus, it might well be that a subpopulation of the lipid droplet-associated proteins are synthesized at their site of action. This proposal would also be compatible with the identification of chaperone proteins among the lipid droplet subproteome. This proposal is highly speculative as long as no putative signal sequence for lipid droplet targeting and domain structures of proteins for their association with the droplet surface have been identified.
Using green fluorescent protein fusions, we confirmed the co-localization of a few of the identified proteins with lipid droplets of tissue culture cells as well as larval and adult fat body cells. In addition to LSD-1 and LSD-2, which were already shown to associate with lipid droplets (18, 37), we found that the three proteins examined were associated with lipid droplets. The putative dehydrogenase CG2254 localizes exclusively in a restricted pattern on lipid droplets. Its localization pattern is reminiscent of the one of Brummer, a lipase recently shown to be central in the control of organismic fat storage of adult flies (48). Most importantly, we noted that the proteins examined were not associated with all lipid droplets, but each of them associates with a subset of droplets only. This differential localization suggests the existence of the above discussed complexity of possible functions and/or different metabolic repertoires of lipid droplets and may reflect part of a "zip code" for functionally different lipid droplets. Future studies will test this proposal by using double labeling experiments combined with fat cell-specific mutations of proteins that define different subpopulations of lipid droplets. This way the question of whether different mutations affecting specific subpopulations of droplets result in separable, non-overlapping cellular and organismal phenotypes could be answered.
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| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
Published, MCP Papers in Press, March 16, 2006, DOI 10.1074/mcp.M600011-MCP200
1 The abbreviations used are: ER, endoplasmic reticulum; ADRP, adipose differentiation-related protein; EGFP, enhanced green fluorescent protein; GO, Gene Ontology; LSD-1, lipid storage droplet-1; LSD-2, lipid storage droplet-2; TIP47, 47-kDa tail-interacting protein; PAT, Perilipin, ADRP, and TIP47; FBB, fat body buffer; SMP30, senescence marker protein-30; PDI, protein-disulfide isomerase; FBP, fat body protein; LSP1, larval serum protein 1; SRP, signal recognition particle; eIF, eukaryotic initiation factor. ![]()
* This work was financially supported by the Max Planck Society. Author contributions to this work were as follows: design of the study by M B., H J., and R P K.; proteomics by M B., L J., G D., and J W.; electron microscopy by M B. and D R.; all other experiments by M B; and manuscript preparation by M B., L J., H J., and R P K. ![]()
S The on-line version of this article (available at http://www.mcponline.org) contains supplemental material. ![]()
Present address: Laboratory of Cellular and Developmental Biology, NIDDK, National Institutes of Health, Dept. of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, MD 20892. ![]()
** To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: 49-551-2011049; Fax: 49-551-2011755; E-mail: rkuehnl{at}gwdg.de
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