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Insulin stimulates glucose transporter (GLUT) 4 vesicle translocation from intracellular storage sites to the plasma membrane in 3T3L1 adipocytes through a VAMP2-and syntaxin 4-dependent mechanism. We have observed that Munc18c, a mammalian homolog of the yeast syntaxin-binding protein n-Sec1p, competed for the binding of VAMP2 to syntaxin 4. Consistent with an inhibitory function for Munc18c, expression of Munc18c, but not the related Munc18b isoform, prevented the insulin stimulation of GLUT4 and IRAP/vp165 translocation to the plasma membrane without any significant effect on GLUT1 trafficking. As expected, overexpressed Munc18c was found to co-immunoprecipitate with syntaxin 4 in the basal state. However, these complexes were found to dissociate upon insulin stimulation. Furthermore, endogenous Munc18c was predominantly localized to the plasma membrane and its distribution was not altered by insulin stimulation. Although expression of enhanced green fluorescent protein-Munc18c primarily resulted in a dispersed cytosolic distribution, co-expression with syntaxin 4 resulted in increased localization to the plasma membrane. Together, these data suggest that Munc18c inhibits the docking/fusion of GLUT4-containing vesicles by blocking the binding of VAMP2 to syntaxin 4. Insulin relieves this inhibition by inducing the dissociation of Munc18c from syntaxin 4 and by sequestering Munc18c to an alternative plasma membrane binding site.The binding of insulin to its heterotetrameric integral-membrane receptor activates its intracellular tyrosine kinase domain and thereby triggers a signaling cascade resulting in the translocation and fusion of intracellular GLUT4 1 isoform-containing vesicles to the plasma membrane (1-3). Although most cell types also constitutively express the GLUT1 isoform at the cell surface, the insulin-stimulated increase in plasma membrane-associated GLUT4 protein accounts for the majority of post-prandial glucose disposal in both muscle and adipose tissue (4).The insulin-stimulated translocation of these GLUT4-containing vesicles has several features in common with the regulated exocytosis pathway of synaptic vesicle trafficking in neurotransmitter release (5). The machinery involved in the regulation of synaptic vesicle priming/docking/fusion entails the pairing of protein complexes in the vesicle compartment (v-SNAREs, for vesicle SNAP receptors) with their cognate receptor complexes at the target membrane (t-SNAREs, for target membrane SNAP receptors). Recently, several of the vand t-SNARE proteins have been identified that specifically participate in the insulin-regulated docking and fusion of GLUT4 vesicles with the adipocyte plasma membrane. GLUT4 vesicles co-purify with both the VAMP2 and VAMP3 v-SNARE isoforms and specific proteolytic cleavage of VAMP2, expression of a dominant-interfering VAMP2 mutant or inhibitory peptides impairs insulin-stimulated GLUT4 translocation (6 -11). In addition, transferrin-horseradish peroxidase ablation of recycling endosomes resulted in a selective loss ...

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We developed a high-throughput approach to knockout (KO) and phenotype mouse orthologs of the 5,000 potential drug targets in the human genome. As part of the phenotypic screen, dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) technology estimates body-fat stores in eight KO and four wild-type (WT) littermate chow-fed mice from each line. Normalized % body fat (nBF) (mean KO % body fat/mean WT littermate % body fat) values from the first 2322 lines with viable KO mice at 14 weeks of age showed a normal distribution. We chose to determine how well this screen identifies body-fat phenotypes by selecting 13 of these 2322 KO lines to serve as benchmarks based on their published lean or obese phenotype on a chow diet. The nBF values for the eight benchmark KO lines with a lean phenotype were ≥1 s.d. below the mean for seven (perilipin, SCD1, CB1, MCH1R, PTP1B, GPAT1, PIP5K2B) but close to the mean for NPY Y4R. The nBF values for the five benchmark KO lines with an obese phenotype were >2 s.d. above the mean for four (MC4R, MC3R, BRS3, translin) but close to the mean for 5HT2cR. This screen also identifies novel body-fat phenotypes as exemplified by the obese kinase suppressor of ras 2 (KSR2) KO mice. These body-fat phenotypes were confirmed upon studying additional cohorts of mice for KSR2 and all 13 benchmark KO lines. This simple and cost-effective screen appears capable of identifying genes with a role in regulating mammalian body fat.

To investigate the physiological function of the VAMP3 vesicle SNARE (v-SNARE) isoform in the regulation of GLUT4 vesicle trafficking, we generated homozygotic VAMP3 null mice by targeted gene disruption. The VAMP3 null mice had typical growth rate and weight gain, with normal maintenance of fasting serum glucose and insulin levels. Analysis of glucose disposal and insulin sensitivity demonstrated normal insulin and glucose tolerance, with no evidence for insulin resistance. Insulin stimulation of glucose uptake in isolated primary adipocytes was essentially the same for the wild-type and VAMP3 null mice. Similarly, insulin-, hypoxia-, and exercise-stimulated glucose uptake in isolated skeletal muscle did not differ significantly. In addition, other general membrane trafficking events including phagocytosis, pinocytosis, and transferrin receptor recycling were also found to be unaffected in the VAMP3 null mice. Taken together, these data demonstrate that VAMP3 function is not necessary for either regulated GLUT4 translocation or general constitutive membrane recycling.Insulin increases glucose uptake in adipose and striated muscle tissues primarily by recruiting the GLUT4 glucose transporter protein to the cell surface (37). In the basal noninsulin-stimulated state, the majority of GLUT4 resides in one or more intracellular compartments (44,45). Upon addition of insulin, the signaling cascade triggered by the insulin receptor leads to rapid translocation of the GLUT4 transporter to the plasma membrane, thereby increasing the number of transporters at the cell surface and the rate of glucose uptake (12,27,38,41).The process of GLUT4 translocation shares important features with the exocytosis of synaptic vesicles during neurotransmitter release. For example, the plasma membrane docking and fusion of GLUT4 vesicles appears to require the t-SNARE protein isoforms syntaxin 4 and SNAP23 (9,37,48). GLUT4 vesicles contain the v-SNARE-interacting partners VAMP2 and VAMP3, both of which translocate to the plasma membrane in parallel with GLUT4 (33,47). Recent studies using various toxins and endosomal ablation techniques have indicated that VAMP2 is the predominant v-SNARE responsible for insulin-stimulated GLUT4 translocation in cultured 3T3-L1 adipocytes and in the L6 muscle cell line (9,32,33,40). In contrast, guanosine-5Ј-O-(3-thiotriphosphate) (GTP␥S)-stimulated GLUT4 translocation was found to be dependent on VAMP3, thereby suggesting the presence of two independently regulated pools of GLUT4 storage compartments (35). In this regard, skeletal muscle has also been shown to contain two pools of GLUT4 vesicles, one that responds to insulin and another that is responsive to exercise and contraction (1,11,39).In addition, the skeletal muscle exercise-contraction subpopulation utilizes a signaling pathway independent of the phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase (30, 31, 50). Similarly, GTP␥S stimulation in adipocytes is also independent of the PI 3-kinase, suggesting that the GTP␥S and exercise-contraction pathways may util...