Sortilin belongs to a growing family of multiligand type-1 receptors with homology to the yeast receptor Vps10p. Based on structural features and sortilin's intracellular predominance, we have proposed it to be a sorting receptor for ligands in the synthetic pathway as well as on the cell membrane. To test this hypothesis we examine here the cellular traf®cking of chimeric receptors containing constructs of the sortilin tail. We report that sorting signals conforming to YXXF and dileucine motifs mediate rapid endocytosis of sortilin chimeras, which subsequently travel to the trans-Golgi network, showing little or no recycling. Furthermore, we found that cation-independent mannose 6-phosphate receptor (MPR300)±sortilin chimeras, expressed in mannose 6-phosphate receptor knockout cells, were almost as ef®cient as MPR300 itself for transport of newly synthesized b-hexosaminidase and b-glucuronidase to lysosomes, and established that the sortilin tail contains potent signals for Golgi±endosome sorting. Finally, we provide evidence suggesting that sortilin is the ®rst example of a mammalian receptor targeted by the recently described GGA family of cytosolic sorting proteins, which condition the Vps10p-mediated sorting of yeast carboxypeptidase Y.

Receptor-associated protein (RAP) is an endoplasmic reticulum/Golgi protein involved in the processing of receptors of the low density lipoprotein receptor family. A ϳ95-kDa membrane glycoprotein, designated gp95/ sortilin, was purified from human brain extracts by RAP affinity chromatography and cloned in a human cDNA library. The gene maps to chromosome 1p and encodes an 833-amino acid type I receptor containing an N-terminal furin cleavage site immediately preceding the N terminus determined in the purified protein. Gp95/sortilin is expressed in several tissues including brain, spinal cord, and testis. Gp95/sortilin is not related to the low density lipoprotein receptor family but shows intriguing homologies to established sorting receptors: a 140-amino acid lumenal segment of sortilin representing a hitherto unrecognized type of extracellular module shows extensive homology to corresponding segments in each of the two lumenal domains of yeast Vps10p, and the extreme C terminus of the cytoplasmic tail of sortilin contains the casein kinase phosphorylation consensus site and an adjacent dileucine sorting motif that mediate assembly protein-1 binding and lysosomal sorting of the mannose-6-phosphate receptors. Expression of a chimeric receptor containing the cytoplasmic tail of gp95/ sortilin demonstrates evidence that the tail conveys colocalization with the cation-independent mannose-6-phosphate receptor in endosomes and the Golgi compartment.Sorting of newly synthesized lysosomal enzymes from the Golgi compartment to late endosomes in eukaryotic cells is a sophisticated transport process involving specific sorting receptors in the trans-Golgi network. In mammals, the 46-and 275-kDa mannose-6-phosphate (M6P) 1 receptors are the known sorting receptors that bind to phosphorylated mannose residues in lysosomal hydrolases (1). In yeast, a M6P-independent sorting pathway has been demonstrated by identification of the vacuolar protein-sorting 10 protein (Vps10p) (2) and a highly homologous protein encoded by the yeast VTH2 gene (3). Both are capable of targeting yeast carboxypeptidase Y to lysosomes (2, 3). Mammalian counterparts to these sorting receptors have so far not been identified. However, studies of I-cell disease patients suggest that mammals may sort lysosomal enzymes by alternative mechanisms (4 -9). The 40-kDa endoplasmic reticulum/Golgi receptor-associated protein (RAP) assists folding and processing of the cysteine-rich low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor class A repeats in receptors of the LDL receptor family (10 -13). In addition to the high affinity binding to the LDL receptor family proteins and the newly identified LDL receptor type A repeat containing receptor sorLA/LR11 (14, 15), RAP binds calmodulin and is phosphorylated by calmodulin-dependent kinase II and casein kinase II (16). Recently, independent observations have shown the binding of RAP to an approximately 100-kDa protein expressed in osteosarcoma (17) and Chinese hamster ovary cells (18).In the present study we have identified, pu...

No abstract

Neurotrophins are essential for development and maintenance of the vertebrate nervous system. Paradoxically, although mature neurotrophins promote neuronal survival by binding to tropomyosin receptor kinases and p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75(NTR)), pro-neurotrophins induce apoptosis in cultured neurons by engaging sortilin and p75(NTR) in a death-signaling receptor complex. Substantial amounts of neurotrophins are secreted in pro-form in vivo, yet their physiological significance remains unclear. We generated a sortilin-deficient mouse to examine the contribution of the p75(NTR)/sortilin receptor complex to neuronal viability. In the developing retina, Sortilin 1 (Sort1)(-/-) mice showed reduced neuronal apoptosis that was indistinguishable from that observed in p75(NTR)-deficient (Ngfr(-/-)) mice. To our surprise, although sortilin deficiency did not affect developmentally regulated apoptosis of sympathetic neurons, it did prevent their age-dependent degeneration. Furthermore, in an injury protocol, lesioned corticospinal neurons in Sort1(-/-) mice were protected from death. Thus, the sortilin pathway has distinct roles in pro-neurotrophin-induced apoptotic signaling in pathological conditions, but also in specific stages of neuronal development and aging.

We recently reported the isolation and sequencing of sortilin, a new putative sorting receptor that binds receptor-associated protein (RAP). The luminal Nterminus of sortilin comprises a consensus sequence for cleavage by furin, R 41 WRR 44 , which precedes a truncation originally found in sortilin isolated from human brain. We now show that the truncation results from cellular processing. Sortilin is synthesized as a proform which, in late Golgi compartments, is converted to the mature receptor by furin-mediated cleavage of a 44 residue N-terminal propeptide. We further demonstrate that the propeptide exhibits pH-dependent high affinity binding to fully processed sortilin, that the binding is competed for by RAP and the newly discovered sortilin ligand neurotensin, and that prevention of propeptide cleavage essentially prevents binding of RAP and neurotensin. The findings evidence that the propeptide sterically hinders ligands from gaining access to overlapping binding sites in prosortilin, and that cleavage and release of the propeptide preconditions sortilin for full functional activity. Although proteolytic processing is involved in the maturation of several receptors, the described exposure of previously concealed ligand-binding sites after furin-mediated cleavage of propeptide represents a novel mechanism in receptor activation.