CLIPR-59, a new trans-Golgi/TGN cytoplasmic linker protein belonging to the CLIP-170 family

The microtubule cytoskeleton plays a fundamental role in cell organization and membrane traffic in higher eukaryotes. It is well established that molecular motors are involved in membrane-microtubule interactions, but it has also been proposed that nonmotor microtubule-binding (MTB) proteins known as CLIPs (cytoplasmic linker proteins) have basic roles in these processes. We report here the characterization of CLIPR-59, a CLIP-170-related protein localized to the trans-most part of the Golgi apparatus. CLIPR-59 contains an acidic region followed by three ankyrin-like repeats and two CLIP-170-related MTB motifs. We show that the 60-amino acid-long carboxy-terminal domain of CLIPR-59 is necessary and sufficient to achieve Golgi targeting, which represents the first identification of a membrane targeting domain in a CLIP-170-related protein. The MTB domain of CLIPR-59 is functional because it localizes to microtubules when expressed as a fragment in HeLa cells. However, our results suggest that this domain is normally inhibited by the presence of adjacent domains, because neither full-length CLIPR-59 nor a CLIPR-59 mutant missing its membrane-targeting region localize to microtubules. Consistent with this observation, overexpression of CLIPR-59 does not affect the microtubule network. However, CLIPR-59 overexpression strongly perturbs early/recycling endosome-TGN dynamics, implicating CLIPR-59 in the regulation of this pathway.