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Journal of Virology, February 2007, p. 1610-1618, Vol. 81, No. 4
0022-538X/07/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JVI.01433-06
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
INSERM UMRS 538, Faculty of Medicine Pierre et Marie Curie, site Saint Antoine, University Pierre and Marie Curie, 27 rue de Chaligny, 75012 Paris, France,1 NMDA, IBDM, Faculté des Sciences de Luminy, Case 907, 13288 Marseille, Cedex 09, France2
Received 7 July 2006/ Accepted 17 November 2006
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Since the initial description of rafts as an example of membrane heterogeneity (10), a huge number of works have been performed to try to delineate their compositions and functions. Biological membrane structure and dynamics rely on a large variety of lipids having different polar head groups, lengths, and unsaturation states of their fatty acid chains. Biophysical studies and high-resolution microscopy have revealed that these lipids do not form a homogeneous phase but, due to specific interactions between lipid species, organize within membrane microdomains with lateral segregation. In particular, the partitioning of cholesterol and sphingolipids, which possess long saturated fatty acid chains, induces the formation of liquid-ordered phases (1, 8, 9, 19), creating patches called "rafts" separated from the rest of the membrane, which is in a liquid-disordered state. Based on the insolubility in detergents of membranes enriched in cholesterol, sphingolipids, and lipid-anchored proteins, such liquid-ordered phases were shown to exist in cell membranes as "detergent-resistant membranes" (DRM) (10; reviewed in reference 8). These liquid-ordered domains are thought to arise from the Golgi apparatus, where sphingolipids are synthesized (64) and to which they recruit proteins destined for apical trafficking in epithelial cells, as proposed by Simons and Ikonen as "the raft hypothesis" (60). These domains have also been implicated in cell signaling (61) and virus penetration, assembly, and release (14). A rapidly growing number of proteins have been shown to be "raft associated" (27). Depending on the method used, the size and nature of membrane rafts correspond to different entities, from relatively large structures (>50 nm) (52, 60, 65) to dynamic assemblies of small size (2) and to nanoscale organization (59). The coexistence of different raft populations was first suggested by the observation that various detergents solubilized membranes differently (58) and by distinct responses to cholesterol removal (43, 54). Cholesterol-independent "super-rafts" were also described for the intestinal brush border (34). Distinct raft populations were then identified through their function (31, 62) and/or lipid composition (12, 25).
We show here striking differences regarding the sensitivity to cholesterol extraction and the lipid composition of VP4-associated raft subsets in MA 104 and Caco-2 cell lines. Moreover, while VP4 is evenly distributed in the former cells, it is mostly present at the apical poles of the latter cells. We propose that the raft heterogeneity observed between the two cell lines may explain the cell type dependency of virus assembly and trafficking.
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(ii) Antibodies. The anti-caveolin-1 (anti-Cav-1) rabbit polyclonal antibody N20, directed against N-terminal residues 2 to 21 of caveolin-1, was obtained from Santa Cruz Biotechnology (Santa Cruz, CA). Mouse monoclonal anti-Cav-1 (2234) and anti-flotillin-2/ESA (Reggie-1) antibodies were purchased from BD Transduction Laboratories (Lexington, KY). The anti-VP4 (7.7) mouse monoclonal antibody was a gift from J. Cohen (CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette, France). M-450 Dynabeads were purchased from Dynal (New Hyde Park, NY). Goat anti-mouse immunoglobulin G (IgG) and anti-rabbit IgG conjugated to peroxidase were purchased from Sigma. The silica gel 60 high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) plates used for lipid analysis were purchased from Merck (Darmstadt, Germany). A neutral glycosphingolipid mixture was obtained from Matreya, Inc. (Pleasant Gap, PA). The phospholipid standards (phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylcholine, and sphingomyelin) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich.
Cell culture, labeling, infection, and immunofluorescence. MA 104 cells were cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium supplemented with 10% decomplemented fetal calf serum, 100 U/ml of penicillin, and 100 µg/ml of streptomycin and were passaged each week. Cells were grown in a 5% CO2-air atmosphere at 37°C. For experiments, MA 104 cells were used between 5 and 6 days after plating. Caco-2 cells were cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium supplemented with 20% decomplemented fetal calf serum in the presence of 100 U/ml penicillin, 100 µg/ml streptomycin, and 1% nonessential amino acids. Cells were grown in a 10% CO2-air atmosphere at 37°C. Caco-2 cells were used 15 days after reaching confluence (21 days of culture), and the medium was changed daily. Caco-2 cells were transfected with plasmids containing canine Cav-1 cDNA as previously described (7). Clones were used after overnight sodium butyrate (10 mM) induction. When cells were labeled with [3H]cholesterol, 5 µCi per flask was added 18 h before the experiment for Caco-2 cells and Caco-2 cells expressing Cav-1 and just after plating for MA 104 cells. When cells were labeled with [14C]serine, 5 µCi per flask was added just after plating for MA 104 cells, and 5 µCi per flask was added twice in the last 2 days before experiments with Caco-2 cells. Cells were infected with rotavirus strain RF, obtained from J. Cohen (CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette, France), as previously described (57), at 10 PFU per cell for Caco-2 cells (transfected with Cav-1 or not) and at 3 PFU per cell for immunofluorescence and 1 PFU per cell for raft preparation when using MA 104 cells. For treatment with methyl-ß-cyclodextrin (CD; Sigma), infected cells labeled with [3H]cholesterol were incubated with 10 mM CD in infection medium for 1 h at 37°C, with gentle shaking. Where indicated, 10 µM lovastatin (Sigma-Aldrich) was added at 1 h postinfection (p.i.) and left until the end of the experiment. DRM were prepared just after the treatment. The efficiency of the CD treatment was monitored by counting [3H]cholesterol in the culture medium and in DRM and soluble fractions obtained from treated and nontreated cells. Immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy analyses were performed on permeabilized cells grown on glass coverslips as previously described (57).
DRM preparation. Membranes resistant to TX-100 or other detergents at 4°C were prepared following flotation gradient separation as described previously (57). Briefly, cells were washed twice with phosphate-buffered saline, scraped into 2 ml TNE buffer (20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.4, 150 mM NaCl, 1 mM EDTA, and a cocktail of antiproteases [Complete Mini; Roche Diagnostics GmbH]) containing 1% TX-100 or other detergents, and passed 10 times through a 22-gauge needle. After 30 min at 4°C, the resulting homogenate was mixed with 2 ml 80% sucrose solution. Layers of 35 and 5% sucrose solution were added, and the discontinuous gradient was centrifuged at 180,000 x g for 18 h at 4°C in a Beckman SW 41 rotor. The DRM fraction was collected at the 5%-35% interface. Homogenates were sonicated with a microtip at a frequency of 20 kHz (MSE sonicator) twice for 10 s each before being analyzed as total membranes. When OptiPrep gradients were used, 1.34 ml of homogenate was mixed with 2.66 ml of pure OptiPrep (Sigma-Aldrich). Layers of 30% and 5% OptiPrep solution were added, and the discontinuous gradient was centrifuged at 100,000 x g for at least 4 h at 4°C in a Beckman SW 41 rotor. The DRM fraction was collected at the 5%-30% interface. Between 12 and 16 mg protein was used for sucrose gradients, and three times less was used for OptiPrep gradients.
Lipid extraction and analysis. Lipids from total membranes and from DRM were extracted with chloroform-methanol by phase separation as described by Bligh and Dyer (3). Phospholipids, cholesterol, and neutral glycosphingolipids were recovered from the lower chloroform phase. Solvents from the chloroform phase were evaporated under a stream of nitrogen, and the lipids were resuspended in chloroform-methanol (1/1 [vol/vol]). The total amount of phospholipids was determined for crude lipid extract by measurement of the phosphorus content (5). For sphingomyelin quantification, the main classes of phospholipids were separated on HPTLC plates by migration in chloroform-methanol-H2O (65/25/4 [vol/vol/vol]) and were revealed by iodine vapor (13). Silica powder corresponding to sphingomyelin was scraped, and phosphorus content was determined on the powder. For cholesterol determination, an aliquot of lipid extract was evaporated and dissolved in ethanol, and the cholesterol content was determined by a colorimetric assay (28). To correctly separate the neutral glycolipids, it was necessary to eliminate the phospholipids by hydrolysis. Therefore, aliquots of lipid extracts were resuspended in 1 ml 0.5 N KOH-methanol and heated for 1 h at 56°C. After cooling, the lipids were separated according to the method of Bligh and Dyer (3). The chloroform phase was washed until neutralization and evaporated, and the neutral glycolipids were separated on HPTLC plates by migration in chloroform-methanol-H2O (65/25/4 [vol/vol/vol]) and revealed by spraying with orcinol.
Western blot analysis and affinity purification of VP4-rich membrane complexes. Proteins recovered from the gradient fractions were separated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and electrotransferred to nitrocellulose sheets for immunoblotting as described previously (21). Protein assays were performed with a BCA kit (Pierce, Rockford, IL). To isolate VP4-associated membrane complexes, VP4 was immunoprecipitated from DRM fractions prepared from [3H]cholesterol-labeled or [14C]serine-labeled infected cells, using magnetic beads. In order to maintain raft integrity, the DRM fraction obtained after sucrose gradient separation was gently resuspended in gradient medium by passage through a 22-gauge needle as described for DRM preparation, with all procedures carried out at 4°C. Magnetic separation also contributes to conserving membrane integrity by eliminating all centrifugation steps. M-450 Dynal beads conjugated with anti-mouse IgG were washed three times with TBS-BSA (20 mM Tris-HCl, pH 7.5, 140 mM NaCl, 0.2% bovine serum albumin) by resuspension and magnetic separation. The anti-VP4 monoclonal antibody was then bound to washed beads by overnight incubation (2 x 107 beads and 4 µg IgG) on a rotary shaker. After being washed three times with TBS and one time with TNE and 1% TX-100, the anti-VP4 beads were resuspended in TNE-1% TX-100. DRM fractions (10 µg of proteins) were precleared by incubation with washed beads for 2 to 3 h and then incubated with anti-VP4-associated beads for 3 to 4 h, with gentle shaking. Magnetic separation allowed us to isolate bound and unbound material. The entire procedure was performed at between 4 and 8°C. The beads were then washed with TNE-1% TX-100 three times, resuspended in Laemmli buffer (2% SDS, 10% glycerol, 60 mM Tris, pH 6.8, 2% ß-mercaptoethanol), and heated at 100°C for 5 min. Radioactivities present in bound and unbound material and in starting DRM were counted in a Beckman liquid scintillation spectrometer after the addition of Ultima Gold (Perkin-Elmer) scintillation fluid. Total DRM and VP4-associated membrane complexes were subjected to SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis. Conditions for caveolin and flotillin immunoprecipitation were 3 x 107 beads and 5 µg IgG with the 2234 monoclonal anti-Cav-1 antibody and 2 x 107 beads and 2 µg IgG with the anti-flotillin-2/ESA antibody. [14C]serine-labeled lipids obtained after immunoseparation were extracted and separated on HPTLC plates. The radioactivity was detected and quantified using a phosphorimager (Storm 860; Amersham Pharmacia Biotech) and ImageQuant software.
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FIG. 1. VP4 mostly localizes at the apical membranes of Caco-2 cells, whereas no particular localization was observed in MA 104 cells. MA 104 cells (5 days old) and Caco-2 cells (20 days old) were infected with the RF rotavirus strain at 3 PFU/cell and 10 PFU/cell, respectively. VP4 was detected after cell permeabilization, using monoclonal antibody 7.7 and a fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled secondary anti-mouse IgG antibody, and observed by confocal microscopy as described in Materials and Methods. (A and B) MA 104 cells. (C and D) Caco-2 cells. (A and C) xy projections. (B and D) xz sections.
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FIG. 2. VP4 association with DRM is sensitive to methyl-ß-cyclodextrin treatment in MA 104 cells and insensitive in Caco-2 cells. MA-104 (A and B) and Caco-2 (C and D) cells were cultured, labeled with [3H]cholesterol, and infected with rotavirus as described in Materials and Methods. CD was added to cells at 6 h and 18 h postinfection for MA 104 and Caco-2 cells, respectively. Where indicated, lovastatin (lov) was added at the beginning of the postinfection time. After OptiPrep gradient separation of lysed cells, the floating material (DRM) and the soluble fractions (the bottom four 1-ml fractions [Sol]) were collected and analyzed for VP4 content. Blots were quantified using Scion image software. [3H]cholesterol contents were determined by radioactivity counting. VP4 and cholesterol contents were expressed as percentages of DRM related to control cells (n = 4 and 6 for MA 104 and Caco-2 cells, respectively).
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Caveolin expression status does not explain the different sensitivities of MA 104 and Caco-2 cells to CD. A striking particularity of Caco-2 cells, as well as of normal intestinal cells, is the absence of Cav-1 expression (45). We used two complementary approaches to investigate whether or not the absence of caveolin could account for the differences in VP4 association with DRM in MA 104 and Caco-2 cells. First, different detergents were tested for the ability to resolve VP4-containing DRM from caveolin-containing DRM in MA 104 cells. Detergent extracts were analyzed on sucrose gradients, and most of the floating material was recovered within two fractions (fractions 4 and 5). As expected from previous data (54, 58), detergent extractions resulted in very different patterns. TX-100 and NP-40 extracted most of the DRM-associated VP4, Cav-1, and flotillin within fraction 4 (Fig. 3A), as well as cholesterol-associated DRM (Fig. 3B). In contrast, Lubrol WX and Brij 58 behaved differently, since VP4 was mostly recovered in fraction 5 and flotillin was equally present in the two fractions, whereas Cav-1 was predominantly recovered in fraction 4 (Fig. 3A), as was DRM-associated cholesterol (Fig. 3B). These results indicate that when detergents are allowed to separate the DRM content into two fractions (i.e., using Lubrol WX or Brij 58), the distributions of VP4 and Cav-1 do not match. It is interesting that the DRM fractions from Lubrol WX and Brij 58 extractions were much more enriched in cholesterol than were TX-100- and NP-40-extracted DRM.
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FIG. 3. VP4 and caveolin expression in DRM from MA 104 cells. MA 104 cells were infected and labeled with [3H]cholesterol as described in the legend to Fig. 2. Cells were then lysed in TNE buffer containing 1% of one of the following detergents: TX-100, Lubrol-WX (Lubrol), Nonidet P-40 (NP-40), or Brij 58. After flotation on a sucrose gradient, 1-ml fractions were collected from the top. (A) Fractions 4 and 5, corresponding to floating material, were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting for the virus protein VP4, flotillin (Flot), and caveolin-1 (Cav-1). (B) Radioactivities in fractions were counted, and cholesterol content is expressed as disintegrations per minute (dpm) for individual fractions.
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FIG. 4. Cell type-dependent sensitivity of VP4 association with DRM to cholesterol extraction does not depend on caveolin expression. (A) Caco-2 cells stably transfected with caveolin-1 (Cav-1-Caco-2) were cultured for 10 days after reaching confluence. Transfected caveolin-1 distribution along a sucrose gradient after cell lysis in TX-100 at 4°C is shown. Note that wild-type Caco-2 cells do not express any detectable Cav-1 (not shown). (B) Cav-1-expressing and wild-type Caco-2 cells were radiolabeled with cholesterol and infected with rotavirus (10 PFU/cell). They were not treated or treated with 10 mM CD before cell lysis, gradient separation, and DRM collection. Equal amounts (in volume) of floating materials (DRM) and soluble fractions (Sol) were collected and analyzed for VP4 and flotillin (Flot) content by SDS-PAGE. (C) [3H]cholesterol, VP4, and flotillin were quantified and expressed as described in the legend to Fig. 2. Data are the means ± standard deviations for two different experiments. Gray bars, untreated cells; black bars, CD-treated cells.
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FIG. 5. DRM in the two cell lines essentially differ by the total amount of lipids. DRM were collected from MA 104 cells and from Cav-1-transfected and wild-type Caco-2 cells and were analyzed for cholesterol (Chol.), sphingomyelin (SM), and glycerophospholipid (GPL) contents as described in Materials and Methods. Data are expressed in nmol of lipids recovered in DRM per mg of cell protein initially layered on the gradient and are means (n = 6 for Caco-2 cells, n = 3 for MA 104 cells, and n = 2 for Cav-1-expressing Caco-2 cells).
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FIG. 6. Profiles of glycolipids from Caco-2 and MA 104 cells are highly different. Cells were scraped into TNE buffer and sonicated, and glycolipids were extracted as described in Materials and Methods. Glycolipid amounts corresponding to 1 mg protein in MA 104 and Caco-2 cell homogenates were spotted onto silica HPTLC plates. Migration was performed in chloroform-methanol-H2O (65/25/4 [vol/vol/vol]). The plate was sprayed with orcinol for glycolipid visualization. Glycolipid markers were mono (or cerebrosides)-, di (or lactosyl-ceramides)-, tri (or globoside 3)-, and tetra (or globoside 4)-hexosides. For mono-, di-, and trihexosides, two main bands were revealed that corresponded to the nonhydroxylated ( ) and hydroxylated (O) forms of the fatty acid chain esterifying the ceramide moiety.
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FIG. 7. Isolation of VP4-associated DRM subsets from both cell lines. DRM collected from MA 104 or Caco-2 cells, unlabeled or labeled with [3H]cholesterol or [14C]serine, were gently dissociated by passage through a 22-gauge needle. DRM suspensions were then incubated with anti-VP4 antibody bound to magnetic beads as described in Materials and Methods. After being washed, the beads were directly counted for [3H]cholesterol or treated with chloroform-methanol for lipid extraction. A fraction of the beads was resuspended in Laemmli buffer and analyzed by Western blotting for VP4 content. (A) Typical VP4 recovery after immunoprecipitation. Double amounts for MA 104 cells and equal amounts for Caco-2 cells of immunoprecipitated fractions (IPP-VP4) related to DRM were spotted. (B) Percent recovery (related to total amount present in DRM) of VP4 and [3H]cholesterol ([3H]chol)- and [14C]serine ([14C]ser)-labeled lipids in the fraction immunoprecipitated with anti-VP4 antibody. VP4 (n = 6) was determined by densitometry, [3H]cholesterol (n = 6) was directly counted on immunoprecipitated beads, and [14C]serine (n = 3) was counted in the lipid extract. (C and D) DRM from MA 104 and Caco-2 cells were immunoprecipitated either with anti-VP4 antibody as in panel A or with anti-flotillin-2 or anti-caveolin-1 (2297) monoclonal antibodies. Fractions immunoprecipitated with anti-VP4 (IPP-VP4), anti-flotillin-2 (IPP-Flot), or anti-caveolin-1 (IPP-Cav) antibodies and a fraction of initial DRM were analyzed by Western blotting with anti-VP4, anti-flotillin-2, and anti-caveolin-1 (N-20) antibodies. m. inf., mock-infected cells; control, infected cells immunoprecipitated without antibody. Asterisks indicate immunoglobulin heavy chain spots.
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FIG. 8. Cell type differences in the lipid compositions of VP4-associated DRM subsets isolated from MA 104 and Caco-2 cells. (A and B) Typical separations by HPTLC of lipid extracts from [14C]serine-labeled MA 104 (A) and Caco-2 (B) cells. Lipids from DRM and immunoprecipitated (IPP) fractions, as described in the legend to Fig. 7, were extracted and separated by HPTLC as described in the legend to Fig. 6. Radioactivity was detected by phosphorimager screening. Migration of lipid standards is indicated. Cer, ceramide; hex, hexoside; PS, phosphatidylserine; PE, phosphatidylethanolamine; SM, sphingomyelin. (C and D) Quantification of the data in panels A and B was performed using ImageQuant software. Data are expressed as the percentage of each lipid species, considering 100% to be the sum of all species in each sample (n = 3).
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It is already known that raft heterogeneity exists and may support distinct functions. The group of Hakomori was the first to separate by immunoisolation a GM3 ganglioside enriched from a caveolin-containing fraction in the low-density TX-100 insoluble fraction of B16 melanoma cells (38). Different detergents were also used to demonstrate raft heterogeneity in MDCK cells: prominin associated with Lubrol-WX DRM, whereas alkaline phosphatase associated with both TX-100 and Lubrol-WX DRM (54). Two raft populations, operating in direct and transcytotic apical trafficking, respectively, were also identified in HepG2 hepatic cells on the basis of their resistance to extraction by different detergents (62). Surprisingly, despite the description of different raft subsets on the basis of their differential protein content, there are only a few studies on the lipid compositions of particular raft subsets. Brugger et al. recently observed that raft subsets immunoprecipitated with Thy-1 were enriched in hexosylceramides and contained more unsaturated and longer lipid chains than did prion protein-associated raft subsets (12). The present results reinforce the idea that raft heterogeneity is supported by distinct lipid compositions. Indeed, we show with two distinct cell lines that it is possible to immunoisolate a subset of raft-type microdomains, using VP4 as bait, whose lipid composition differs from that of the global population of raft microdomains. Even more, comparison of both the global populations of raft microdomains and VP4 raft subsets between the two cell lines indicates that they are also different.
First, we show that the nature of the glycolipids involved in raft formation is distinct in the two cell lines. The overall population of rafts from MA 104 cells is mainly composed of monohexosides and nonhydroxylated fatty acid chains, in contrast to the case for Caco-2 cells. These data point to a simple idea, that cells assemble lipid species synthesized through the metabolic pathways available in a given cell line into raft-type membrane microdomains on the basis of lipid-lipid specific interactions. Recruitment of specific lipids will then confer unique physicochemical properties to these microdomains. A clear example is given by recent observations that intestinal cells produce particular rafts, termed "super-rafts," assembled as highly stable and large entities resistant to cholesterol extraction (34). Our finding that Caco-2 rafts contain more different neutral glycolipids with more hydroxylated chains strongly argues for a reinforcement of lateral interactions within the plane of membrane lipids due to an increased number of hydrogen bond-accepting capacities (4, 39, 51; reviewed in references 11 and 44). This also may explain why cholesterol removal may be of little importance for the functionality of rafts from Caco-2 cells, due to the above-mentioned hydrogen bonding between the head groups of glycolipids and/or to a lesser accessibility of cyclodextrin to cholesterol entrapped in these rafts (50, 53). We think that these physicochemical properties of Caco-2 raft-type microdomains are sufficient to explain why VP4 remains associated with these microdomains in the presence of CD.
Second, we show that the rotavirus VP4 spike protein binds to different raft subsets in MA 104 and Caco-2 cells. It is important that the immunoprecipitation approach used in the present study is rather efficient, since >90% of VP4 present in the total raft population was recovered within the VP4-associated raft subsets of both cell lines, together with 10 to 15% of total cholesterol and serine-labeled lipids. This indicates that quantitative information may be derived from our data. Since the general populations of raft-type microdomains from MA 104 and Caco-2 cells are different, it is not surprising to find that VP4 binds to different raft subsets. Our results indicate that this is the case and therefore support the idea that VP4 selects lipids within the total raft population on the basis of both affinities and the availability of particular lipid species. However, the enrichments in lipid species within the raft subsets relative to the initial raft populations were not the same in the two cell lines. VP4-associated raft subsets from MA 104 cells were mostly enriched in sphingomyelin and contained less phosphatidylethanolamine, whereas subsets from Caco-2 cells were enriched in both sphingomyelin and glycolipids and contained less phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylserine. The mechanisms for such differences are not known, but it can be hypothesized that they might be due to the affinities of VP4 for different membrane lipids.
At least four domains have been identified in the sequence of VP4 that may mediate its interaction with membrane lipids. VP4 contains a fusogenic domain (42) which is able to permeabilize liposomes (23), a raft-independent membrane binding domain (30), an integrin binding domain thought to mediate virus attachment and/or entry into target cells (32), and a galectin-like domain within the N-terminal part of the protein that is thought to be located at the most external part of the virus spike (24). The fusogenic domain of VP4 was shown to interact with phosphatidylcholine- and cholesterol-containing liposomes in the absence of glycolipids (47). The integrin binding domain was shown to contain a GDE(A) sequence responsible for interaction with
2ß1 integrin in several cell lines from different origins (15). As a consequence, the first three domains do not seem to be involved in cell type-dependent differential interactions of VP4 with raft-type membrane microdomains. We suggest that the galectin-like domain of VP4 may be responsible for the preferential binding of VP4 with rafts in Caco-2 cells. This hypothesis fits very well with the observation that an authentic galectin, namely, galectin-4, a ß-galactoside-specific lectin, interacts with intestinal raft-type microdomains (20) and that this interaction is CD insensitive (34), as shown here for VP4, dependent on glycolipids (6, 22), and directly involved in an apical targeting pathway (20). Indeed, a small interfering RNA specific for galectin-4 was recently shown to block apical trafficking in enterocyte-like cells (20). In 1990, a novel secretory mechanism was described for members of the galectin protein family which are abundant in the extracellular matrix (16). Galectins were shown to follow the "nonclassical secretory pathway," by-passing the Golgi apparatus, and to be secreted into the extracellular medium (49). It is tempting to speculate that rotaviruses follow the same intestinal raft-type microdomains as galectin-4 to reach the apical plasma membranes of Caco-2 cells. Further experiments are in progress to study the precise relationships between galectins and VP4 apical trafficking in Caco-2 cells.
This work was supported by institutional funds from the Research and Education Ministries of France (PRFMMIP and Nanosciences ACI) and by a grant from the ARC (to M. Angelova).
Published ahead of print on 29 November 2006. ![]()
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2ß1 integrin
2 I domain via VP4 DGE sequence and recognize
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