| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,600,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥1,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000)
Fiscal Year 2001: ¥1,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000)
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| Research Abstract |
To clarify the fate of glyeosylphosphstidylinositol (GPI) in mammals, we developed GPI-anchored green fluorescent protein (GFP-GPI) and transgenic mice carrying this fusion constract. When it was introduced to culture cells, the GFP-GPI protein was correctly sorted to plasma membranes and mierosomes depending on GPI biosynthesis. Transgenic mice carrying GFP-GPI were found to show a broad transgene expression. Historogically, a prominent polarized localization of GFP-GPI protein was observed in various epithelia, nervous system and liver, as well as non-polarized presence in non-epthelial tissues.
Surprisingly, the GFP-GPI protein showed high level secretion in exocrine glands and testis. What is the biological significance of this phenotype? How are GPI-anchored proteins released from membranes? To answer to these questions, we attempted to isolate which converts GPI-anchored proteins from the membrane attached form to the soluble form.
Processing and turnover of transmembrane polypeptides and extra-cellular matrix proteins are performed by particular metalloproteases, contributing to multiple biological processes at the cell surface. However the regulation of -anchored proteins, a class of proteins anchoring to the outer-leaflet of membrane lipid bilayer via glycophospholipid moiety, was not further clarified.
Here we found a metalloprotease, the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), release GPI-anchored proteins from the cell surface. ACE known to be a key regulator of blood pressure homeostasis cleaves various soluble small peptides, notably angiotensin I and bradykinin, thereby changing their biological activities and leading up-regulation of the blood pressure. The novel activity we found here suggests that ACE also contributes to membrane protein turnover and acts on more broad biological processes.
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