The Lass (longevity-assurance homologue) family members, which are highly conserved among eukaryotes, function in ceramide synthesis. In the mouse, there are at least five Lass family members, Lass1, Lass2, Lass4, Lass5 and the hitherto uncharacterized Lass6. To investigate specific roles for each Lass member in ceramide synthesis, we cloned these five mouse proteins. Overproduction of any Lass protein in cultured cells resulted in an increase in cellular ceramide, but the ceramide species produced varied. Overproduction of Lass1 increased C18:0-ceramide levels preferentially, and overproduction of Lass2 and Lass4 increased levels of longer ceramides such as C22:0- and C24:0-ceramides. Lass5 and Lass6 produced shorter ceramide species (C14:0- and C16:0-ceramides); however, their substrate preferences towards saturated/unsaturated fatty acyl-CoA differed. In addition to differences in substrate preferences, we also demonstrated by Northern blotting that Lass family members are differentially expressed among tissues. Additionally, we found that Lass proteins differ with regard to glycosylation. Of the five members, only Lass2, Lass5 and Lass6 were N-glycosylated, each at their N-terminal Asn residue. The occurrence of N-glycosylation of some Lass proteins provides topological insight, indicating that the N-termini of Lass family members probably face the luminal side of the endoplasmic reticulum membrane. Furthermore, based on a proteinase K digestion assay, we demonstrated that the C-terminus of Lass6 faces the cytosolic side of the membrane. From these data we propose topology for the conserved Lag1 motif in Lass family members, namely that the N-terminal region faces the luminal side and the C-terminal region the cytosolic side of the endoplasmic reticulum membrane.
Lass(长寿保证同源物)家族成员在真核生物中高度保守,在神经酰胺合成中发挥作用。在小鼠体内,至少有五个 Lass 家族成员,即 Lass1、Lass2、Lass4、Lass5 和迄今尚未定性的 Lass6。为了研究每个 Lass 成员在神经酰胺合成中的特定作用,我们克隆了这五种小鼠蛋白。在培养细胞中过度生产任何一种 Lass 蛋白都会导致细胞神经酰胺的增加,但产生的神经酰胺种类各不相同。过量生产 Lass1 会优先增加 C18:0 神经酰胺的含量,而过量生产 Lass2 和 Lass4 则会增加较长神经酰胺的含量,如 C22:0 和 C24:0 神经酰胺。Lass5 和 Lass6 产生较短的神经酰胺种类(C14:0- 和 C16:0-神经酰胺);但是,它们对饱和/不饱和脂肪酰基-CoA 的底物偏好不同。除了底物偏好的差异,我们还通过 Northern 印迹技术证明了 Lass 家族成员在不同组织中的表达差异。此外,我们还发现 Lass 蛋白在糖基化方面存在差异。在五个成员中,只有 Lass2、Lass5 和 Lass6 在其 N 端 Asn 残基上进行了 N-糖基化。一些 Lass 蛋白发生 N-糖基化提供了拓扑学上的启示,表明 Lass 家族成员的 N 端可能面向内质网膜的腔侧。此外,基于蛋白酶 K 消化试验,我们证明 Lass6 的 C 端面向膜的细胞质一侧。根据这些数据,我们提出了 Lass 家族成员中保守的 Lag1 基序的拓扑结构,即 N 端区域面向内质网膜的腔侧,C 端区域面向内质网膜的细胞质侧。