Department of Chemistry and Pharmacology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
J Neurosci. 2011 Jan 26;31(4):1461-70. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3805-10.2011.
Protein sorting represents a potential point of regulation in neurotransmission because it dictates the protein composition of synaptic vesicles, the organelle that mediates transmitter release. Although the average number of most vesicle proteins has been estimated using bulk biochemical approaches (Takamori et al., 2006), no information exists on the intervesicle variability of protein number, and thus on the precision with which proteins are sorted to vesicles. To address this, we adapted a single molecule quantification approach (Mutch et al., 2007) and used it to quantify both the average number and variance of seven integral membrane proteins in brain synaptic vesicles. We report that four vesicle proteins, SV2, the proton ATPase, Vglut1, and synaptotagmin 1, showed little intervesicle variation in number, indicating they are sorted to vesicles with high precision. In contrast, the apparent number of VAMP2/synaptobrevin 2, synaptophysin, and synaptogyrin demonstrated significant intervesicle variability. These findings place constraints on models of protein function at the synapse and raise the possibility that changes in vesicle protein expression affect vesicle composition and functioning.
蛋白质分拣代表了神经递质传递调控的一个潜在靶点,因为它决定了突触小泡的蛋白质组成,而突触小泡是介导递质释放的细胞器。虽然大多数囊泡蛋白的平均数量已经通过批量生化方法进行了估计(Takamori 等人,2006),但对于囊泡之间蛋白质数量的变化,以及蛋白质被分拣到囊泡中的精确程度,尚无信息。为了解决这个问题,我们采用了一种单分子定量方法(Mutch 等人,2007),并用它来定量大脑突触小泡中七种跨膜蛋白的平均数量和方差。我们报告说,四种囊泡蛋白,SV2、质子 ATP 酶、Vglut1 和突触结合蛋白 1,在数量上显示出很少的囊泡间变化,表明它们被高度精确地分拣到囊泡中。相比之下,VAMP2/synaptobrevin 2、突触小体蛋白和突触糖蛋白的表观数量表现出显著的囊泡间变异性。这些发现限制了突触处蛋白质功能的模型,并提出了囊泡蛋白表达的变化可能会影响囊泡组成和功能的可能性。