1. Pink-eyed dilution protein controls the processing of tyrosinase.
- Author
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Chen K, Manga P, and Orlow SJ
- Subjects
- Animals, Cell Fractionation methods, Cell Line, Cytoplasmic Granules physiology, Cytoplasmic Granules ultrastructure, Endoplasmic Reticulum physiology, Endoplasmic Reticulum ultrastructure, Melanocytes physiology, Membrane Proteins genetics, Mice, Monophenol Monooxygenase metabolism, Polymerase Chain Reaction, Recombinant Proteins metabolism, Transfection, Carrier Proteins, Membrane Proteins physiology, Monophenol Monooxygenase genetics, Pigmentation physiology
- Abstract
The processing of tyrosinase, which catalyzes the limiting reaction in melanin synthesis, was investigated in melan-p1 melanocytes, which are null at the p locus. Endoglycosidase H digestion showed that a significant fraction of tyrosinase was retained in the endoplasmic reticulum. This retention could be rescued either by transfection of melan-p1 cells with an epitope-tagged wild-type p transcript or by treatment with either bafilomycin A1 or ammonium chloride. We found that the endoplasmic reticulum contains a significant amount of p protein, thus supporting a role for p within this compartment. Using immunofluoresence, we showed that most mature full-length tyrosinase in melan-p1 cells was located in the perinuclear area near the Golgi, in contrast to its punctate melanosomal pattern in wild-type melanocytes. Expression of p in melan-p1 cells restored tyrosinase to melanosomes. Triton X-114 phase separation revealed that an increased amount of tyrosinase was proteolyzed in melan-p1 cells compared with wild-type melanocytes. The proteolyzed tyrosinase was no longer membrane bound, but remained enzymatically active and a large proportion was secreted into the culture medium of melan-p1 cells. We conclude that p regulates posttranslational processing of tyrosinase, and hypopigmentation in melan-p1 cells is the result of altered tyrosinase processing and trafficking.
- Published
- 2002
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