Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2009
Abstract
Non-covalent and covalent homo-oligomerization of membrane proteins regulates their subcellular localization and function. Here, we described a novel oligomerization mechanism affecting solute carrier family 30 member 3/zinc transporter 3 (SLC30A3/ZnT3). Oligomerization was mediated by intermolecular covalent dityrosine bonds. Using mutagenized ZnT3 expressed in PC12 cells, we identified two critical tyrosine residues necessary for dityrosine-mediated ZnT3 oligomerization. ZnT3 carrying the Y372F mutation prevented ZnT3 oligomerization, decreased ZnT3 targeting to synaptic-like microvesicles (SLMVs), and decreased resistance to zinc toxicity. Strikingly, ZnT3 harboring the Y357F mutation behaved as a ‘‘gain-of-function’’ mutant as it displayed increased ZnT3 oligomerization, targeting to SLMVs, and increased resistance to zinc toxicity. Single and double tyrosine ZnT3 mutants indicate that the predominant dimeric species is formed between tyrosine 357 and 372. ZnT3 tyrosine dimerization was detected under normal conditions and it was enhanced by oxidative stress. Covalent species were also detected in other SLC30A zinc transporters localized in different subcellular compartments. These results indicate that covalent tyrosine dimerization of a SLC30A family member modulates its subcellular localization and zinc transport capacity. We propose that dityrosine-dependent membrane protein oligomerization may regulate the function of diverse membrane protein in normal and disease states.
Recommended Citation
Salazar, G., Falcon-Perez, J. M., Harrison, R., & Faundez, V. (2009). SLC30A3 (ZnT3) oligomerization by dityrosine bonds regulates its subcellular localization and metal transport capacity. PloS ONE, 4(6), e5896. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0005896
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Comments
This article was originally published in PLoS ONE.
Copyright © 2009 Salazar et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
This work was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health to V.F. (GM077569) and RWH (GM065762). Dr. Harrison is a GCC distinguished cancer scholar. Support for the modeling program development and hardware is from the Georgia Cancer Coalition and Georgia Research Alliance.