Glucokinase Regulatory Protein Is Essential for the Proper Subcellular Localisation of Liver Glucokinase
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FEBS Letters 456 (1999) 332^338 FEBS 22420 Glucokinase regulatory protein is essential for the proper subcellular localisation of liver glucokinase Nu¨ria de la Iglesiaa, Maria Veiga-da-Cunhab, Emile Van Schaftingenb, Joan J. Guinovarta, Juan C. Ferrera;* aDepartament de Bioqu|¨mica i Biologia Molecular, Universitat de Barcelona, Mart|¨ i Franque©s, 1, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain bLaboratory of Physiological Chemistry, Christian de Duve Institute of Cellular Pathology and Universite¨ Catholique de Louvain, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium Received in revised form 24 June 1999 pressed by fructose 1-phosphate, both of which bind to Abstract Glucokinase (GK), a key enzyme in the glucose homeostatic responses of the liver, changes its intracellular GKRP and modify its a¤nity for GK [4]. This 68 kDa protein localisation depending on the metabolic status of the cell. Rat is only found in the livers of species that express GK and liver GK and Xenopus laevis GK, fused to the green fluorescent although there is some evidence for its presence in pancreatic protein (GFP), concentrated in the nucleus of cultured rat tissue [5,6], a direct demonstration is still not available. hepatocytes at low glucose and translocated to the cytoplasm at In in vitro assays, rat GKRP can inhibit human pancreatic high glucose. Three mutant forms of Xenopus GK with reduced GK, which shows a high degree of identity to the rat liver affinity for GK regulatory protein (GKRP) did not concentrate isoform [7], as well as Xenopus laevis liver GK [8], a more in the hepatocyte nuclei, even at low glucose. In COS-1 and distantly related protein. This suggests that the residues in- HeLa cells, a blue fluorescent protein (BFP)-tagged version of volved in the binding to GKRP are conserved among the rat liver GK was only able to accumulate in the nucleus when it members of the GK family. Through the analysis of several was co-expressed with GKRP-GFP. At low glucose, both proteins concentrated in the nuclear compartment and at high mutated forms of Xenopus GK and human L-cell GK, the glucose, BFP-GK translocated to the cytosol while GKRP-GFP domains involved in this interaction have been further de- remained in the nucleus. These findings indicate that the presence lineated [7,8]. of and binding to GKRP are necessary and sufficient for the Experiments with digitonin-permeabilised hepatocytes ¢rst proper intracellular localisation of GK and directly involve showed that fructose or elevated concentrations of glucose GKRP in the control of the GK subcellular distribution. cause GK, but not GKRP, to translocate from a Mg2-de- z 1999 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. pendent binding site to a site where it is more easily released by the detergent [9,10]. Immunostaining of GK and GKRP in Key words: Glucokinase regulatory protein; perfused rat livers [11,12] and in rat cultured hepatocytes [13], Protein-protein interaction; Fluorescence microscopy it revealed a nuclear localisation of both proteins in the pres- ence of low concentrations of glucose. Rat GK was reported to translocate to the cytoplasm upon incubation with fructose 1. Introduction [13] or high concentrations of glucose [11,13]. However, there is still controversy about the behaviour of GKRP, since it has Glucokinase (GK), one of the enzymes that catalyse glucose been reported to remain in the nucleus [13] or to accompany phosphorylation in liver and in pancreatic K- and L-cells, is a GK in its movement [12]. key piece of the glucose sensing machinery in mammals [1,2]. In the present study, using the green £uorescent protein It plays a fundamental role in the whole body glucose homeo- (GFP) and a blue variant (BFP) as tags for localisation of stasis and mutations of the GK gene are associated with GKRP and wild-type and mutated forms of GK, we show MODY 2, a form of maturity-onset diabetes of the young [3]. that the relative a¤nity of GK for GKRP is an absolute GK, a monomeric 50 kDa protein, exhibits kinetic proper- determinant of the nuclear localisation of GK. Furthermore, ties quite di¡erent from those of the other members of the by the co-expression of rat liver GK and GKRP, we have mammalian hexokinase family. It is not inhibited by its prod- been able to engineer a glucose sensing device in two cell lines uct, glucose 6-phosphate, and possesses a sigmoidal saturation unrelated to hepatocytes, COS-1 and HeLa, making that the curve and a relatively low a¤nity for glucose (Hill coe¤- intracellular distribution of GK in these cells is controlled by cient = 1.5^1.8, S0:5 = 2^8 mM, depending on the species), so the levels of glucose. that the £ux through GK is sensitively modulated by £uctua- tions in the concentration of its substrate in the physiological 2. Materials and methods range [1]. In the liver, the activity of GK is also modulated by a regulatory protein (GKRP) that binds and inhibits GK 2.1. Plasmid construction competitively with respect to glucose. The inhibitory e¡ect Standard molecular cloning techniques were used throughout. The full coding sequence of rat GK was ampli¢ed from rat liver mRNA by of GKRP is enhanced by fructose 6-phosphate and sup- PCR using the Superscript One-Step RT-PCR System (Gibco BRL) and the two oligonucleotides TCTCTACTTCCCCAACGACCCC (sense), corresponding to nucleotides 28^49 of the 5P untranslated *Corresponding author. Fax: (34) (93) 4021219. region of the rat liver GK cDNA (GeneBank number J04218), and E-mail: [email protected] TTTGTGGTGTGTGGAGTCCCC (antisense), complementary to nucleotides 1501^1521. It was then re-ampli¢ed with Pfu DNA poly- Abbreviations: GK, glucokinase; GKRP, glucokinase regulatory pro- merase following the supplier's instructions and using the sense primer tein; GFP, green £uorescent protein; BFP, blue £uorescent protein (Boehringer Mannheim) TACGTACCCCATGGCTATGGATACTA- 0014-5793 / 99 / $20.00 ß 1999 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. All rights reserved. PII: S0014-5793(99)00971-0 FEBS 22420 29-7-99 Cyaan Magenta Geel Zwart N. de la Iglesia et al./FEBS Letters 456 (1999) 332^338 333 CAAG, which contains a NcoI site (underlined) at the start codon, On the day of the experiment, cells were washed in PBS and in- and the antisense primer TAGCTACGTCGACCTGGATTTCACT- cubated in plain DMEM with 5.5 mM glucose for 2 h (controls), GGGCC, which introduces a SalI site (underlined) and is complemen- followed by a 2 h incubation with plain DMEM with 30 mM glucose. tary to nucleotides 1456^1475. The fragment obtained was cloned into At the end of the incubations, cells were washed twice with PBS, ¢xed the blunt-ended and dephosphorylated plasmid pUC18 SmaI/BAP for 20 min in PBS containing 4% paraformaldehyde and were washed using the SureClone Ligation kit (Pharmacia Biotech). The resulting several times with PBS. plasmid was digested with NcoI and blunt-ended with the Klenow fragment of Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I, followed by digestion 2.3. Immuno£uorescence analyses with SalI. The fragment was ligated into pEGFP-C1 (Clontech) which Following ¢xation, cells were incubated with NaBH4 (1 mg/ml), previously had been digested with BglII, Klenow-¢lled and digested permeabilised with 0.2% (v/v) Triton X-100 in PBS and blocked in with SalI. This ensured the in-frame fusion of rat liver GK at the C- 3% bovine serum albumin-PBS (w/v). The cells were then incubated terminus of the GFP coding sequence plus a linker of ¢ve amino acids with antibodies directed against rat liver GK [17] or GKRP [18] for 45 under the control of the constitutive immediate early promoter of the min at room temperature, washed in PBS and treated with a £uores- human cytomegalovirus. cein isothiocyanate (FITC)-conjugated anti-sheep or anti-rabbit im- The full coding sequence of rat liver GKRP was ampli¢ed from the munoglobulin (Chemicon and Molecular Probes, respectively) for 30 pBluescript/GKRP plasmid [14] by PCR using Pfu DNA polymerase min. Finally, cells were washed in PBS. Controls included examina- and the oligonucleotides GAAGATCTCGCCACCATGCCAGGCA- tion of cultures for auto£uorescence and speci¢city of antibodies, after CCAAACGATATCAGC (sense) and GCAGGATCCAATTCAGG- incubating the ¢xed cells with only the labelled secondary antibody. GTCCCACAGGCGGG (antisense). The sense oligonucleotide intro- For nuclei staining in red, coverslips were treated with 1 Wg/ml duces the BglII restriction site at its 5P end followed by a Kozak RNAse (DNAse free) in PBS for 30 min and with 0.2 Wg/ml propi- consensus translation initiation site, to further increase the translation dium iodide for 10 min, followed by washing in PBS. Finally, cover- e¤ciency in eukaryotic cells, and nucleotides 22^46 of the rat GKRP slips were air-dried and mounted on glass microscope slides in Immu- cDNA (GeneBank number X68497). The antisense oligonucleotide, no Fluore Mounting Medium (ICN). which is complementary to nucleotides 1882^1904, was designed to eliminate the GKRP stop codon and to introduce a BamHI restriction 2.4. Confocal and epi£uorescence microscopy site at its 3P end. The PCR product was digested with BamHI, Kle- Confocal £uorescent images were obtained with a Leica TCS 4D now-¢lled, digested with BglII and then ligated into pEGFP-N1 (Leica Lasertechnik, Heidelberg, Germany) confocal scanning laser (Clontech), which had previously been digested with SalI, Klenow- microscope adapted to an inverted Leitz DMIRBE microscope and ¢lled and digested with BglII. This ensured the in-frame fusion of 63U/1.4 oil Plan-Apo objective. The light source was an argon/kryp- GFP to the C-terminus of the GKRP coding sequence plus a linker ton laser (75 mW). Green £uorescence (from GFP recombinants or of 15 amino acids.