Role of sphingolipids and polyubiquitin chains in intracellular trafficking of the yeast GAP1 permease

One of the membrane proteins of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae whose intracellular trafficking has been extensively studied is the general amino acid permease Gap1. Yet some aspects of the function of ubiquitin in the nitrogen-dependent control of this protein remain controversial. Moreover, the potential role of lipid rafts in regulating the functional properties and traffic of the Gap1 permease had not been investigated before this thesis work.

The first part of our work readdresses the role of Gap1 ubiquitylation, and more precisely of the modification of the permease with polyubiquitin chains linked through the lysine 63 of ubiquitin, in controlling the fate of this protein in the secretory pathway. Our observations indicate that nitrogen-induced ubiquitylation of newly synthesised Gap1 occurs in the trans-Golgi complex. However, contrary to the generally accepted view, this modification is not necessary for the permease to exit this compartment en route to the endosome but only for its subsequent targeting to the vacuolar lumen via the multivesicular body (MVB) pathway. Our results also provide evidence that K63-linked polyubiquitylation is important mostly at the late endosomal level, for proper sorting of Gap1 into the MVB pathway, whether the permease comes from the cell surface by endocytosis or directly from the secretory pathway.

In the second part of this work, we present a set of data providing novel insights into the controversial question of the exact nature of lipid rafts in yeast. We first showed that the Gap1 permease is associated with detergent-resistant membranes (DRMs) - the proposed biochemical equivalent of lipid rafts - when it is located at the cell surface. Our data further suggest that this may be true for most if not all yeast plasma membrane proteins. Moreover, we found that Gap1 production must be coupled to de novo synthesis of sphingolipids (SLs), major constituents of rafts, in order for the newly synthesised permease to be correctly folded, active, associated with DRMs, and stable at the cell surface. We propose a model where Gap1 would associate with newly synthesised SLs during its biogenesis and/or secretion, this association shaping the permease into its native conformation and ensuring its incorporation and stabilisation in specific lipid domains at the plasma membrane. Failure of Gap1 to acquire this lipidic microenvironment in turns leads to its ubiquitin-dependent degradation by a quality-control mechanism. This model might be valid for many other plasma membrane proteins and might account for their lateral distribution between distinct membrane domains.