Axonal transport of muscarinic receptors in vesicles containing noradrenaline and dopamine-β-hydroxylase

Presynaptic muscarinic receptors labeled with [³H]dexetimide and noradrenaline in dog splenic nerves accumulated proximally to a ligature at the same rate of axonal transport. After fractionation by differential centrifugation, specific [³H]quinuclidinyl benzilate or [³H]dexetimide binding revealed a distribution profile similar to that of dopamine-β-hydroxylase and noradrenaline. Subfractionation by density gradient centrifugation showed two peaks of muscarinic receptors; the peak of density 1.17 contained noradrenaline and dopamine-β-hydroxylase whereas that of density 1.14 was devoid of noradrenaline. Therefore the foregoing experiments provide evidence that presynaptic muscarinic receptors are transported in sympathetic nerves in synaptic vesicles which are similar to those containing noradrenaline and dopamine-β-hydroxylase. This suggests a possible coexistence of receptor and neurotransmitter in the same vesicle.     

Comparison of chemical properties of purified plasma membranes and secretory vesicle membranes from the bovine adrenal medulla

Summary A highly enriched fraction of plasma membranes from the bovine adrenal medulla has been isolated by differential and sucrose gradient centrifugation. The membranes were found to occur as 0.1–0.5 diameter vesicles and to equilibrate at a density of 1.13–1.14 g/ml. This fraction was characterized by 4-fold elevated levels of adenylate cyclase and 20-fold elevated levels of 5-nucleotidase. Secretory vesicle membranes, isolated by repeated hypotonie and hypertonic shocks of whole vesicles, were found to equilibrate between d = 1.08 and d = 1.12 on a sucrose density step gradient. These membranes were highly enriched in cytochrome b₅₆₂ and dopamine--hydroxylase. Proteins in the two membranes were compared by SDS gel electrophoresis. All protein size classes found in the vesicle membrane fraction were also represented in the plasma membrane fraction, though in different proportions on the basis of staining intensity. The plasma membrane fraction contained prominent bands co-migrating with the - and -bands of tubulin, as well as a component co-migrating with actin. These bands were absent from the vesicle membranes. Fingerprint analysis of stained bands from the membrane fraction demonstrated that the components were indeed tubulin and actin. The plasma membranes contained twice as much sialic acid residues as did the chromaffin granule membranes, but had only half the cholesterol content on a weight basis. The cholesterolphospholipid ratio in the plasma membranes was 0.63, while in the secretory vesicle membranes it was 1.04. These results show that plasma membranes and secretory vesicle membranes are functionally and structurally different.Supported, in part, by a stipend to O.Z. from The Grant Foundation, New York     

Metacercarial dispersion and intracellular parasitism in a strigeid trematode

Combes C. and Nassi H. 1977. Metacercarial dispersion and intracellular parasitism in a strigeid trematode. International Journal for Parasitology7: 501–503. The life cycle of Apatemon graciliformis Szidat, 1928 (Trematoda, Strigeidae), a parasite of Biorrphalaria glabrata in Guadeloupe, involves a novel mode of transmission, experimentally demonstrated, between the second intermediate host and the definitive host. The furcocercariae penetrate gravid females of the ovoviviparous fish, Poecilia reticulata, and develop into metacercariae in vitelline vesicles of the embryos where they encyst a short time before parturition. The young guppies are born infected with 1–3 metacercariae. It is considered that young infected fish are more prone to predation by the definitive host, thereby increasing the probability of the cycle being completed. Domestic ducks have been experimentally infected with these metacercariae. If cercariae penetrate non-gravid P. reticulata, they enter the oocytes; this represents a phase of intracellular parasitism.     

II. Phospholipid exchange and size enlargement in sonicated vesicles induced by a ‘critical’ fatty acid concentration

Size enlargement of dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine vesicles was greatly accelerated in the range of the phase-transition temperatures, when fatty acid concentration was above a threshold level (‘critical’ concentration). This ‘critical’ concentration varied with the length of the fatty acid chain. The size enlargement process had second-order kinetics dependent on the vesicle concentration. Alkaline pH and low ionic strength inhibited the rate of size enlargement.Phospholipid exchange between dimyristoyl and dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine vesicles increased abruptly above a ‘critical’ fatty acid concentration. The donor vesicles were those vesicles in which fatty acids reached the ‘critical’ concentration. The phospholipid exchange occurred both in fluid- and in solid-state vesicles. The ‘critical’ fatty acid concentration accelerating the phospholipid exchange process was lower than that accelerating the size enlargement process.The phospholipid exchange process explained in terms of a diminished hydrophobic attraction among the phospholipid molecules of the bilayer occurs via a free phospholipid molecule transfer through the aqueous phase. The size enlargement process is interpreted in terms of high fatty acid concentration in the membrane fluid domains. The membrane structure is locally perturbed inducing vesicle sticking after collision.     

Time-dependent changes of calcium influx and efflux rates in rabbit skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum

Unfractionated and low buoyant density sarcoplasmic reticulum vesicles released calcium spontaneously after ATP- or acetyl phosphate-supported calcium uptake when internal Ca²⁺ was stabilized by the use of 50 mM phosphate as calcium-precipitating anion. This spontaneous calcium release could not be attributed to falling Ca²⁺ concentration outside the vesicles (Ca₀²⁺), substrate depletion, ADP accumulation, nonspecific membrane deterioration or the attainment of a high vesicular calcium content. Instead, spontaneous calcium release was directly proportional to Ca₀²⁺ at the time that calcium content was maximal. A causal relationship between high Ca₀²⁺ and spontaneous calcium release was suggested by the finding that elevation of Ca₀²⁺ from less than 1 μM to 3–5 μM increased the rate and extent of calcium release.The spontaneous calcium release was due both to acceleration of calcium efflux and slowing of calcium influx that was not accompanied by a significant change in the rate of ATP hydrolysis. Neither reversal of the transmembrane KCl gradient nor incubation with cation and proton ionophores abolished the spontaneous calcium release. The persistence of calcium release under conditions where the membrane was permeable to both anions and cations makes it unlikely that this phenomenon is due to a changing transmembrane potential.     

A mechanism for the formation of inside-out membrane vesicles. Preparation of inside-out vesicles from membrane-paired randomized chloroplast lamellae

Inside-out thylakoid membrane vesicles can be isolated by aqueous polymer two-phase partition of Yeda press-fragmented spinach chloroplasts (Andersson, B. and Åkerlund, H.-E. (1978) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 503, 462–472). The mechanism for their formation has been investigated by studying the yield of inside-out vesicles after various treatments of the chloroplasts prior to fragmentation. No inside-out vesicles were isolated during phase partitioning if the chloroplasts had been destacked in a low-salt medium prior to the fragmentation. Only in those cases where the chloroplast lamellae had been stacked by cations or membrane-paired by acidic treatment did we get any yield of inside-out vesicles. Thus, the intrinsic properties of chloroplast thylakoids seem to be such that they seal into right-side out vesicles after disruption unless they are in an appressed state. This favours the following mechanism for the formation of inside-out thylakoids. After press treatment, a ruptured membrane still remains appressed with an adjacent membrane. Resealing of such an appressed membrane pair would result in an inside-out vesicle.If the compartmentation of chloroplast lamellae into appressed grana and unappressed stroma lamellae is preserved by cations before fragmentation, the inside-out vesicles are highly enriched in photosystem II. This indicates a granal origin which is consistent with the proposed model outlined. Inside-out vesicles possessing photosystem I and II properties in approximately equal proportions could be obtained by acid-induced membrane-pairing of chloroplasts which had been destacked and randomized prior to fragmentation. Since this new preparation of inside-out thylakoid vesicles also exposes components derived from the stroma lamellae it complements the previous preparation.It is suggested that fragmentation of paired membranes followed by phase partitioning should be a general method of obtaining inside-out vesicles from membranes of various biological sources.     

Phosphatidylinositol distribution and translocation in sonicated vesicles. A study with exchange protein and phospholipase C

The distribution of phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylcholine in sonicated phospholipid vesicles (phosphatidylcholine: diphosphatidylglycerol: phosphatidylinositol, 90:5:5 mol%) has been determined by the use of exchange protein from beef heart and phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C from Staphylococcus aureus. Approximately 70% of the phosphatidylinositol in the sonicated vesicles was accessible to the exchange protein and 70–75% was accessible to the phospholipase C. A similar proportion (65%) of the phosphatidylcholine was accessible to the exchange protein suggesting that phosphatidylinositol was not preferentially located in either surface of the phospholipid bilayer. The rate of translocation of both phospholipids was very slow but the rate for phosphatidylcholine ($\text{t}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}\text{= 4–7}\text{days}$) appeared to be greater than that for phosphatidylinositol ($\text{t}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}\text{= 8–60}\text{days}$). Production of asymmetric vesicles by removing phosphatidylinositol from the outer surface with either exchange protein or phospholipase C did not induce rapid phospholipid translocation.     

Preparation of asymmetric,cerebroside sulfate-containing phospholipid vesicles

A procedure is described which inserts asymmetrically cerebroside sulfate (‘sulfatide’) into the outer leaflet of bilayered phospholipid vesicles. Cerebroside sulfate is adsorbed onto a cellulose, filter-paper support and, when incubated with phosphatidylcholine vesicles is transferred to and inserted into the outer leaflet of these vesicles. This transfer occurs at, or above the transition temperature of the phospholipid and follows a similar pattern with small or larger (‘fused’) unilamellar vesicles. The transfer is linear with time for 1–2 h and is maximal after about 6 h, when the sulfatide content reaches about 6 mol% of the total quantity of phospholipid, corresponding to about 10 mol% of the phospholipids present in the outer layer. Initial rates of sulfatide transfer were somewhat increased when the vesicles contained a positively charged lipid (e.g. stearylamine) and decreased when this lipid was negatively charged (e.g. dicetyl phosphate) or hydrophobic (e.g. cholesterol). Divalent ions markedly inhibited sulfatide transfer and monovalent ions did so to a lesser degree. Once incorporated into the outer leaflet of the vesicle, the sulfatide could not be removed by washing with buffer, 1 M NaCl or 1 M urea.     

Cation transport properties of a synthetic Ca2+-selective peptide ionophore in phospholipid and sarcoplasmic reticulum vesicles

Transport by the synthetic cyclic peptide ionophore CYCLEX-2E (Deber, C.M., Young, M.E.M., and Tom-Kun, J. (1980) Biochemistry 19, 6194–6198), which in contrast to Ca²⁺ ionophore A23187 contains no ionizable protons, has been studied with respect to Ca²⁺ and Na⁺ transport, and the involvement of exchanged, or counter-transported ions during the transport process. CYCLEX-2E was found to equilibrate Na⁺ and Ca²⁺ gradients across phospholipid vesicle membranes. Experiments using the indicator dye Arsenazo III established that calcium ions were indeed reaching the aqueous intravesicular compartments. Absence of metal cations in the external buffer slowed, but did not eliminate, the efflux of Ca²⁺ from phosphatidylcholine vesicles. As an example of its activity in a biological membrane, CYCLEX-2E was shown to be capable of producing Ca²⁺ efflux from sarcoplasmic reticulum vesicles which had been loaded with Ca²⁺ in an ATP-dependent manner. The overall results suggest that in transport by synthetic peptide ionophores typified by CYCLEX-2E, electroneutrality is achieved either through (a) peptide-mediated compensating (but not coupled) fluxes of other cations, or where this is not an option, by (b) transmembrane diffusion of permeant ions such as H⁺, OH^?, or Cl^?.     

Na+-dependent transport of glycine in renal brush border membrane vesicles: Evidence for a single specific transport system

The uptake of glycine in rabbit renal brush border membrane vesicles was shown to consist of glycine transport into an intravesicular space. An Na⁺ electrochemical gradient (extravesicular>intravesicular) stimulated the initial rate of glycine uptake and effected a transient accumulation of intravesicular glycine above the steady-state value. This stimulation could not be induced by the imposition of a K⁺, Li⁺ or choline⁺ gradient and was enhanced as extravesicular Na⁺ was increased from 10 mM to 100 mM. Dissipation of the Na⁺ gradient by the ionophore gramicidin D resulted in diminished Na⁺-stimulated glycine uptake. Na⁺-stimulated uptake of glycine was electrogenic. Substrate-velocity analysis of Na⁺-dependent glycine uptake over the range of amino acid concentrations from 25 μM to 10 mM demonstrated a single saturable transport system with apparent K_m = 996 μM and V_max = 348 pmol glycine/mg protein per min. Inhibition observed when the Na⁺-dependent uptake of 25 μM glycine was inhibited by 5 mM extravesicular test amino acid segregated dibasic amino acids, which did not inhibit glycine uptake, from all other amino acid groups. The amino acids d-alanine, d-glutamic acid, and d-proline inhibited similarly to their l counterparts. Accelerative exchange of extravesicular [³H]glycine was demonstrated when brush border vesicles were preloaded with glycine, but not when they were preloaded with l-alanine, l-glutamic acid, or with l-proline. It is concluded that a single transport system exists at the level of the rabbit renal brush border membrane that functions to reabsorb glycine independently from other groups of amino acids.