Received December 20, 2002
Accepted February 17, 2003
The GTPase ARF1p Controls the Sequence-Specific Vacuolar Sorting Route to the Lytic
Vacuole
Peter Pimpl 1, Sally L. Hanton 1, J. Philip Taylor 1, Luis L. Pinto-daSilva 1, and Jürgen Denecke 1*
1
Centre for Plant Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds
LS2 9JT, United Kingdom
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: j.denecke{at}leeds.ac.uk.
We have studied the transport of soluble cargo molecules by inhibiting specific transport
steps to and from the Golgi apparatus. Inhibition of export from the Golgi via coexpression
of a dominant-negative GTP-restricted ARF1 mutant (Q71L) inhibits the secretion of
-amylase and simultaneously induces the secretion of the vacuolar protein phytepsin
to the culture medium. By contrast, specific inhibition of endoplasmic reticulum
export via overexpression of Sec12p or coexpression of a GTP-restricted form of Sar1p
inhibits the anterograde transport of either cargo molecule in a similar manner.
Increased secretion of the vacuolar protein was not observed after incubation with
the drug brefeldin A or after coexpression of the GDP-restricted mutant of ARF1 (T31N).
Therefore, the differential effect of inducing the secretion of one cargo molecule
while inhibiting the secretion of another is dependent on the GTP hydrolysis by ARF1p
and is not caused by a general inhibition of Golgi-derived COPI vesicle traffic.
Moreover, we demonstrate that GTP-restricted ARF1-stimulated secretion is observed
only for cargo molecules that are expected to be sorted in a BP80-dependent manner,
exhibiting sequence-specific, context-independent, vacuolar sorting signals. Induced
secretion of proteins carrying C-terminal vacuolar sorting signals was not observed.
This finding suggests that ARF1p influences the BP80-mediated transport route to
the vacuole in addition to transport steps of the default secretory pathway to the
cell surface.