期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
电子版ISSN:1091-6490
出版年度:1990
卷号:87
期号:19
页码:7419-7423
DOI:10.1073/pnas.87.19.7419
语种:English
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:To characterize the mechanisms that determine the apical polarity of proteins anchored by glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI), we studied the targeting of a GPI-anchored form of a herpes simplex glycoprotein, gD-1, in transfected MDCK cells. Using a biotin-based targeting assay, we found that GPI-anchored gD-1 was sorted intracellularly and delivered directly to the apical surface. Endocytosis of GPI-anchored gD-1 occurred slowly and preferentially from the apical domain, while transcytosis of the basolateral fraction did not occur at a significant rate (incompatible with being a precursor to the apical pool). Prevention of tight junction formation by incubation in medium with micromolar Ca2+ resulted in expression of GPI-anchored gD-1 on the free surface, but not on the attached surface of the cell. Our results indicate that the apical polarity of a GPI-anchored protein is generated by vectorial delivery to the apical membrane, where its distribution is maintained by slow endocytosis and by a retention system not necessarily involving the tight junction.