AP-1 in Toxoplasma gondii mediates biogenesis of the rhoptry secretory organelle from a post-Golgi compartment

We have previously demonstrated that Toxoplasma gondii has a tyrosine-based sorting system, which mediates protein targeting to the lysosome-like rhoptry secretory organelle. We now show that rhoptry protein targeting is also dependent on a dileucine motif and occurs from a post-Golgi endocytic organelle to mature rhoptries in an adaptin-dependent fashion. The T. gondii AP-1 adaptin complex is implicated in this transport because the micro1 chain of T. gondii AP-1 (a) was localized to multivesicular endosomes and the limiting and luminal membranes of the rhoptries; (b) bound to endocytic tyrosine motifs in rhoptry proteins, but not in proteins from dense granule secretory organelles; (c) when mutated in predicted tyrosine-binding motifs, led to accumulation of the rhoptry protein ROP2 in a post-Golgi multivesicular compartment; and (d) when depleted via antisense mRNA, resulted in accumulation of multivesicular endosomes and immature rhoptries. These are the first results to implicate AP-1 in transport from a post-Golgi compartment to a mature secretory organelle and substantially expand the role for AP-1 in anterograde protein transport.     

An evolutionarily conserved pseudokinase mediates stem cell production in plants

Sequence comparisons, biochemical experiments, and studies with mutants in transgenic plants show that the Arabidopsis protein CORYNE, currently thought to be a kinase that acts as part of a receptor kinase complex, is likely to be a pseudokinase and not a kinase.     

Acetylation of conserved lysines fine-tunes mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase activity in land plants

Plants need to rapidly and flexibly adjust their metabolism to changes of their immediate environment. Since this necessity results from the sessile lifestyle of land plants, key mechanisms for orchestrating central metabolic acclimation are likely to have evolved early. Here, we explore the role of lysine acetylation as a post-translational modification to directly modulate metabolic function. We generated a lysine acetylome of the moss Physcomitrium patens and identified 638 lysine acetylation sites, mostly found in mitochondrial and plastidial proteins. A comparison with available angiosperm data pinpointed lysine acetylation as a conserved regulatory strategy in land plants. Focusing on mitochondrial central metabolism, we functionally analyzed acetylation of mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase (mMDH), which acts as a hub of plant metabolic flexibility. In P. patens mMDH1, we detected a single acetylated lysine located next to one of the four acetylation sites detected in Arabidopsis thaliana mMDH1. We assessed the kinetic behavior of recombinant A. thaliana and P. patens mMDH1 with site-specifically incorporated acetyl-lysines. Acetylation of A. thaliana mMDH1 at K169, K170, and K334 decreases its oxaloacetate reduction activity, while acetylation of P. patens mMDH1 at K172 increases this activity. We found modulation of the malate oxidation activity only in A. thaliana mMDH1, where acetylation of K334 strongly activated it. Comparative homology modeling of MDH proteins revealed that evolutionarily conserved lysines serve as hotspots of acetylation. Our combined analyses indicate lysine acetylation as a common strategy to fine-tune the activity of central metabolic enzymes with likely impact on plant acclimation capacity.