LACTB is a mammalian active-site serine protein that has evolved from a bacterial penicillin-binding protein. Penicillin-binding proteins are involved in the metabolism of peptidoglycan, the major bacterial cell wall constituent, implying that LACTB has been endowed with novel biochemical properties during eukaryote evolution. Here we demonstrate that LACTB is localized in the mitochondrial intermembrane space, where it is polymerized into stable filaments with a length extending more than a hundred nanometers. We infer that LACTB, through polymerization, promotes intramitochondrial membrane organization and micro-compartmentalization. These findings have implications for our understanding of mitochondrial evolution and function. M itochondria descend from ancient Gram-negative bacteria that, through endosymbiosis, became permanent residents of eukaryotic cells (1-3). As a consequence, mitochondria and Gram-negative bacteria share several biochemical features, including DNA organization, core metabolism, and a doublemembrane architecture. In Gram-negative bacteria, but not in mitochondria, a mesh-like layer of peptidoglycan is deposited between the outer and inner membrane, offering protection against mechanical stress. Following endosymbiosis, the peptidoglycan layer lost its structural importance, and was subsequently eliminated from the early eukaryotic cell. Although eukaryotes lack peptidoglycan, proteins deriving from the penicillin-binding protein (PBP) family (4) are found in all major eukaryotic lineages, including vertebrates (5).The bacterial PBPs constitute a large family of serine proteases that is distinguished by 3 conserved amino acid motifs that contribute to the formation of the catalytic site. The -SXXKmotif contains the catalytic serine residue, which undergoes reversible acylation through substrate binding, whereas the -[SY]X[NT]-and the - [KH][ST]G-motifs contribute to substrate docking (4). PBPs catalyze the hydrolysis or transpeptidation of the terminal D-alanyl-D-alanine moiety in peptidoglycan stem peptides. The acceptor for the transpeptidation reaction is the -amino group of lysine or diaminopimelate in an adjacent stem peptide. Through these reactions, PBPs contribute to modulate the extent of peptidoglycan cross-linking during bacterial cell division and cell wall elongation (4).In contrast, the function of PBP homologues in eukaryotic organisms remains largely unexplored. Amino acid sequence analyses show that the 3 conserved amino acid motifs required for catalytic activity are conserved in all eukaryotic PBP homologues (5), suggesting that they can function as active-site serine enzymes. Within the metazoan division, nematodes harbor the largest number of PBP homologues (5), and in Caenorhabditis elegans the PBP homologue LACT-1 may be involved in pathogen recognition (6). LACTB is the only PBP homologue of mammals, and LACTB has been identified in all mammalian genomes sequenced to date (5,7,8). Recently, a causative link between LACTB and obesity was detected through gene coexp...

The mechanisms by which low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol exits the endocytic circuits are not well understood. The process is defective in Niemann-Pick type C (NPC) disease in which cholesterol and sphingolipids accumulate in late endosomal compartments. This is accompanied by defective cholesterol esterification in the endoplasmic reticulum and impaired ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1)-dependent cholesterol efflux. We show here that overexpression of the recycling/exocytic Rab GTPase Rab8 rescued the late endosomal cholesterol deposition and sphingolipid mistrafficking in NPC fibroblasts. Rab8 redistributed cholesterol from late endosomes to the cell periphery and stimulated cholesterol efflux to the ABCA1-ligand apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) without increasing cholesterol esterification. Depletion of Rab8 from wild-type fibroblasts resulted in cholesterol deposition within late endosomal compartments. This cholesterol accumulation was accompanied by impaired clearance of LDL-cholesterol from endocytic circuits to apoA-I and could not be bypassed by liver X receptor activation. Our findings establish Rab8 as a key component of the regulatory machinery that leads to ABCA1-dependent removal of cholesterol from endocytic circuits. INTRODUCTIONNiemann-Pick type C (NPC) disease is one of the classical, monogenic cholesterol accumulation disorders in humans. The cellular pathology has been first characterized roughly 20 years ago (Pentchev et al., 1985;Liscum and Faust, 1987), and the disease has since been a subject of intense research efforts. By investigating the molecular basis of NPC pathology, researchers hope to learn more about how cells normally handle cholesterol and about factors predisposing to more common disorders of cholesterol transport and homeostasis. The genes mutated in NPC disease, NPC1 or NPC2, have been characterized previously (Carstea et al., 1997;Naureckiene et al., 2000). Both are capable of interacting with cholesterol (Okamura et al., 1999;Ohgami et al., 2004), but their precise functions are unknown.NPC cells exhibit a defect in the intracellular trafficking of low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-derived cholesterol. In NPC cells, LDL is taken up by receptor-mediated endocytosis, and the LDL cholesteryl esters are hydrolyzed to free cholesterol and fatty acid by lysosomal acid lipase. However, cholesterol is not capable of efficiently exiting the hydrolytic compartments and accumulates therein (Pentchev et al., 1994). Cholesterol has impaired access to the endoplasmic reticulum for reesterification and for regulation of the transcriptional apparatus of lipid balance. Therefore, cholesterol biosynthesis and LDL receptor levels are maintained at inappropriately high levels. Moreover, the generation of oxysterols is impaired in NPC cells. This results in decreased activation of the nuclear hormone receptor liver X receptor (LXR) and impaired cholesterol efflux via the LXR-regulated cholesterol transporter ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) (Choi et al., 2003;Frolov et a...

Astrocytes secrete cholesterol in lipoprotein particles.Here we show that primary murine embryonic astrocytes secrete endogenously synthesized cholesterol but also the cholesterol precursors desmosterol and lathosterol. In astrocyte membranes, desmosterol and cholesterol were the predominant sterols. Astrocytes derived from Niemann-Pick type C lipidosis (NPC1 ؊/؊ ) mice displayed late endosomal cholesterol deposits, but the secretion of biosynthetic sterols from the cells was not inhibited. Both wild-type and NPC1 ؊/؊ astrocytes secreted the NPC2 protein. Size-exclusion chromatography combined with electron microscopy showed that the majority of sterols were secreted separately from NPC2 in heterogeneous spherical particles with an average diameter of 20 nm. These data suggest that NPC2 and the majority of sterols secreted from astrocytes are not released together and that the secretion of neither sterols nor NPC2 requires NPC1 function. In addition, the findings reveal a complexity of sterol species in astrocytes and bring up the possibility that some of the effects assigned to astrocyte cholesterol may be attributed to its penultimate precursors. The brain is the most cholesterol-rich organ in the body, containing roughly 25% of the unesterified cholesterol present in the whole individual. The input of cholesterol into the brain comes entirely, or almost entirely, from in situ synthesis because blood lipoproteins do not cross the blood-brain-barrier (1). Glial cells are thought to be responsible for a large part of this biosynthetic activity. Most of the sterol in the brain is acquired during myelination in the early stages of development and is produced by oligodendrocytes (2).Astrocytes, the most abundant glial cells, are intimately associated with neuronal synapses and secrete cholesterol in lipoprotein particles. Astrocytes have been proposed to provide cholesterol for synapse formation (3) as well as to participate in the recycling of cholesterol after injury (4). Nascent lipoproteins isolated from neonatal mouse astrocytes are a heterogeneous population of particles in the size range of plasma high density lipoproteins and appear to be composed of two separate classes that contain either apolipoprotein E or J (5).Niemann-Pick type C disease (NPC) 1 is an inherited, fatal neurodegenerative disorder in which large amounts of cholesterol and sphingolipids accumulate intracellularly within late endocytic organelles. The disease is caused by mutations in either the NPC1 or NPC2 gene (6). The NPC1 protein is a late endosomal membrane protein harboring a sterol-sensing domain, whereas NPC2 is a secretory protein that has cholesterol binding properties and uses the mannose 6-phosphate marker for late endosomal targeting (7). The exact functions of the proteins remain unknown, but genetic evidence suggests that they function in concert to facilitate lysosomal lipid egress (8).In the NPC1 Ϫ/Ϫ mouse astrocytes are considered to contribute to neurodegeneration (9, 10). Interestingly, NPC1 Ϫ/Ϫ astrocytes were shown t...

Methylglyoxal (MG) (pyruvaldehyde) is a reactive carbonyl compound produced in glycolysis. MG can form covalent adducts on proteins resulting in advanced glycation end products that may alter protein function. Here we report that MG covalently modifies the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (PTP), a high conductance channel involved in the signal transduction of cell death processes. Incubation of isolated mitochondria with MG for a short period of time (5 min), followed by removal of excess free MG, prevented both ganglioside GD3-and Ca 2؉ -induced PTP opening and the ensuing membrane depolarization, swelling, and cytochrome c release. Under these conditions MG did not significantly interfere with mitochondrial substrate transport, respiration, or oxidative phosphorylation. The suppression of permeability transition was reversible following extended incubation in MG-free medium. Of the 29 physiological carbonyl and dicarbonyl compounds tested only MG and its analogue glyoxal were able to specifically alter the behavior of the PTP. Using a set of arginine-containing peptides, we found that the major MG-derived arginine adduct formed, following a short time exposure to MG, was the 5-hydro-5-methylimidazol-4-one derivative. These findings demonstrate that MG rapidly modifies the PTP covalently and stabilizes the PTP in the closed conformation. This is probably due to the formation of an imidazolone adduct on an arginine residue involved in the control of PTP conformation (Linder, M. D., Morkunaite-Haimi, S., Kinnunen, P. J. K., Bernardi, P., and Eriksson, O. (2002) J. Biol. Chem. 277, 937-942). We deduce that the permeability transition constitutes a potentially important physiological target of MG.