Journal of Cell Science 116, e504-e504 (2003)
Copyright © 2003 The Company of Biologists Limited
Lipid microdomains in yeast
Lipid microdomains provide a mechanism for compartmentalizing membranes,
selectively incorporating certain proteins but not others. In mammalian cells,
sterol-rich microdomains are important for a variety of processes, including
signalling, membrane trafficking and cytoskeletal regulation. Since such
microdomains also exist in fission yeast, this organism might represent a
useful model system for analyses of their locations and functions. Mohan
Balasubramanian and co-workers now show that this is indeed the case (see
p. 867). They have used
filipin, a fluorescent probe that targets 3-ß-hydroxysterols, to identify
sterol-rich domains at the site of cytokinesis and at the growing tips of
cells. The authors find that localization of sterols to these microdomains is
cell cycle dependent and requires a functional secretory pathway. Furthermore,
they show that sequestration of sterols by filipin produces defects in
cytokinesis and destabilizes Bgs4p — a plasma membrane protein
concentrated at growing tips and the site of cytokinesis. Their findings thus
not only establish S. pombe as a genetically tractable model organism
for studies of sterol-rich membrane domains but also indicate that these
domains are important for targeting of the growth and division machinery.
Related articles in JCS:
- Sterol-rich plasma membrane domains in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe
- Volker Wachtler, Srividya Rajagopalan, and Mohan K. Balasubramanian
JCS 2003 116: 867-874.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
