Glycerophospholipid flip-flop across biogenic membranes such as the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a fundamental feature of membrane biogenesis. Flip-flop requires the activity of specific membrane proteins called flippases. These proteins have yet to be identified in biogenic membranes and the molecular basis of their action is unknown. It is generally believed that flippase-facilitated glycerophospholipid flip-flop across the ER is governed by the stereochemistry of the glycerolipid, but this important issue has not been resolved. Here we investigate whether the ER flippase stereochemically recognizes the glycerophospholipids that it transports. To address this question we selected phosphatidylinositol (PI), a biologically important molecule with chiral centres in both its myo-inositol headgroup and its glycerol–lipid tail. The flip-flop of PI across the ER has not been previously reported. We synthesized fluorescence-labeled forms of all four diastereoisomers of PI and evaluated their flipping in rat liver ER vesicles, as well as in flippase-containing proteoliposomes reconstituted from a detergent extract of ER. Our results show that the flippase is able to translocate all four PI isomers and that both glycerol isomers of PI flip-flop across the ER membrane at rates similar to that measured for fluorescence-labeled phosphatidylcholine. Our data have important implications for recent hypotheses concerning the evolution of distinct homochiral glycerophospholipid membranes during the speciation of archaea and bacteria/eukarya from a common cellular ancestor.
甘油磷脂在
生物膜(如内质网)上的翻转是膜
生物发生的一个基本特征。翻转需要特定膜蛋白(即翻转酶)的活性,但这些蛋白质在
生物膜中的身份尚未确定,其作用的分子基础也还不清楚。一般认为,内质网上的翻转酶介导的
甘油磷脂翻转受
甘油磷脂的手性
化学支配,但这一重要问题尚未解决。在此,我们研究内质网翻转酶是否手性识别其转运的
甘油磷脂。为解答这一问题,我们选择了
磷脂酰肌醇,这种
生物学上重要的分子在其肌醇头基和
甘油脂尾上都具有手性中心。之前并未有过关于
磷脂酰肌醇在内质网翻转的报道。我们合成了所有四种
磷脂酰肌醇的非对映异构体并进行荧光标记,评估它们在大鼠肝脏内质网囊泡及从内质网洗涤剂
提取物重建的含翻转酶的蛋白脂质体中的翻转情况。结果显示,翻转酶能够转运所有的
磷脂酰肌醇异构体,两种
磷脂酰肌醇的
甘油异构体在内质网膜上的翻转速率与荧光标记的
磷脂酰
胆碱相当。这些数据对近期有关古菌和细菌/真核
生物从共同的细胞祖先演化出不同手性的
甘油磷脂膜的假设有着重要意义。