Stephen H. Loukin

A TRP homolog in Saccharomyces cerevisiae forms an intracellular Ca2+-permeable channel in the yeast vacuolar membrane

The molecular identification of ion channels in internal membranes has made scant progress compared with the study of plasma membrane ion channels. We investigated a prominent voltage-dependent, cation-selective, and calcium-activated vacuolar ion conductance of 320 pS (yeast vacuolar conductance, YVC1) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Here we report on a gene, the deduced product of which possesses significant homology to the ion channel of the transient receptor potential (TRP) family. By using a combination of gene deletion and re-expression with direct patch clamping of the yeast vacuolar membrane, we show that this yeast TRP-like gene is necessary for the YVC1 conductance. In physiological conditions, tens of micromolar cytoplasmic Ca2+ activates the YVC1 current carried by cations including Ca2+ across the vacuolar membrane. Immunodetection of a tagged YVC1 gene product indicates that YVC1 is primarily localized in the vacuole and not other intracellular membranes. Thus we have identified the YVC1 vacuolar/lysosomal cation-channel gene. This report has implications for the function of TRP channels in other organisms and the possible molecular identification of vacuolar/lysosomal ion channels in other eukaryotes.

The transient receptor potential channel on the yeast vacuole is mechanosensitive

Ca2+ is released from the vacuole into the yeast cytoplasm on an osmotic upshock, but how this upshock is perceived was unknown. We found the vacuolar channel, Yvc1p, to be mechanosensitive, showing that the Ca2+ conduit is also the sensing molecule. Although fragile, the yeast vacuole allows limited direct mechanical examination. Pressures at tens of millimeters of Hg (1 mmHg = 133 Pa) activate the 400-pS Yvc1p conductance in whole-vacuole recording mode as well as in the excised cytoplasmic-side-out mode. Raising the bath osmolarity activates this channel and causes vacuolar shrinkage and deformation. It appears that, on upshock, a transient osmotic force activates Yvc1p to release Ca2+ from the vacuole. Mechanical activation of Yvc1p occurs regardless of Ca2+ concentration and is apparently independent of its known Ca2+ activation, which we now propose to be an amplification mechanism (Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release). Yvc1p is a member of the transient receptor potential-family channels, several of which have been associated with mechanosensation in animals. The possible use of Yvc1p as a molecular model to study mechanosensation in general is discussed.

Feeling the hidden mechanical forces in lipid bilayer is an original sense

Life’s origin entails enclosing a compartment to hoard material, energy, and information. The envelope necessarily comprises amphipaths, such as prebiotic fatty acids, to partition the two aqueous domains. The self-assembled lipid bilayer comes with a set of properties including its strong anisotropic internal forces that are chemically or physically malleable. Added bilayer stretch can alter force vectors on embedded proteins to effect conformational change. The force-from-lipid principle was demonstrated 25 y ago when stretches opened purified Escherichia coli MscL channels reconstituted into artificial bilayers. This reductionistic exercise has rigorously been recapitulated recently with two vertebrate mechanosensitive K+ channels (TREK1 and TRAAK). Membrane stretches have also been known to activate various voltage-, ligand-, or Ca2+-gated channels. Careful analyses showed that Kv, the canonical voltage-gated channel, is in fact exquisitely sensitive even to very small tension. In an unexpected context, the canonical transient-receptor-potential channels in the Drosophila eye, long presumed to open by ligand binding, is apparently opened by membrane force due to PIP2 hydrolysis-induced changes in bilayer strain. Being the intimate medium, lipids govern membrane proteins by physics as well as chemistry. This principle should not be a surprise because it parallels water’s paramount role in the structure and function of soluble proteins. Today, overt or covert mechanical forces govern cell biological processes and produce sensations. At the genesis, a bilayer’s response to osmotic force is likely among the first senses to deal with the capricious primordial sea.

YKC1 encodes the depolarization-activated K+ channel in the plasma membrane of yeast

Our previous patch‐clamp studies showed that depolarization activates a K+‐specific current in the plasma membrane of the binding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae [Gustin et al. (1986) Science 233, 1195–1197]. The yeast Genome Sequencing Project has now uncovered on the left arm of chromosome X an open reading frame (ORF) that predicts a 77‐kDa protein reminiscent of a shaker‐like α subunit with 6 membrane spans followed by a subunit with 2 spans. We found that deleting this ORF removes the yeast K+ current. Furnishing the ORF from plasmids restores or even greatly amplifies this current. These manipulations have no effects on the 40‐pS mechanosensitive conductance also native to this membrane. Thus, this ORF, named YKC1 here, likely encodes a structure for the K+‐specific channel of the yeast plasma membrane. This and other K+ channel subunits are compared and the possible uses of this gene in research are discussed. YKC1 has recently been shown by others to induce in frog oocytes a K+ current. Its activation is coupled to E K+ and its outward rectification depends on external divalent cations. We found the YKC1 channel in its native membrane activates at low voltages largely independent of E K+ and it remains so despite removal of divalents by chelation.

Wild-type and brachyolmia-causing mutant TRPV4 channels respond directly to stretch force

Whether animal ion channels functioning as mechanosensors are directly activated by stretch force or indirectly by ligands produced by the stretch is a crucial question. TRPV4, a key molecular model, can be activated by hypotonicity, but the mechanism of activation is unclear. One model has this channel being activated by a downstream product of phospholipase A2, relegating mechanosensitivity to the enzymes or their regulators. We expressed rat TRPV4 in Xenopus oocytes and repeatedly examined >200 excised patches bathed in a simple buffer. We found that TRPV4 can be activated by tens of mm Hg pipette suctions with open probability rising with suction even in the presence of relevant enzyme inhibitors. Mechanosensitivity of TRPV4 provides the simplest explanation of its various force-related physiological roles, one of which is in the sensing of weight load during bone development. Gain-of-function mutants cause heritable skeletal dysplasias in human. We therefore examined the brachyolmia-causing R616Q gain-of-function channel and found increased whole-cell current densities compared with wild-type channels. Single-channel analysis revealed that R616Q channels maintain mechanosensitivity but have greater constitutive activity and no change in unitary conductance or rectification.

Random mutagenesis reveals a region important for gating of the yeast K+ channel Ykc1

YKC1 (TOK1, DUK1, YORK) encodes the outwardly rectifying K+ channel of the yeast plasma membrane. Non‐targeted mutations of YKC1 were isolated by their ability to completely block proliferation when expressed in yeast. All such mutations examined occurred near the cytoplasmic ends of the transmembrane segments following either of the duplicated P loops, which we termed the ‘post‐P loop’ (PP) regions. These PP mutations specifically caused marked defects in the ‘C1’ states, a set of interrelated closed states that Ykc1 enters and exits at rates of tens to hundreds of milliseconds. These results indicate that the Ykc1 PP region plays a role in determining closed state conformations and that non‐targeted mutagenesis and microbial selection can be a valuable tool for probing structure–function relationships of ion channels.

Increased Basal Activity Is a Key Determinant in the Severity of Human Skeletal Dysplasia Caused by TRPV4 Mutations

TRPV4 is a mechanically activated Ca2+-passing channel implicated in the sensing of forces, including those acting on bones. To date, 33 mutations are known to affect human bone development to different extents. The spectrum of these skeletal dysplasias (SD) ranges from dominantly inherited mild brachylomia (BO) to neonatal lethal forms of metatropic dysplasia (MD). Complexities of the results from fluorescence and electrophysiological studies have led to questions on whether channel activity is a good predictor of disease severity. Here we report on a systematic examination of 14 TRPV4 mutant alleles covering the entire SD spectrum. Expressed in Xenopus oocyte and without any stimulation, the wild-type channel had a ∼1% open probability (Po) while those of most of the lethal MD channels approached 100%. All mutant channels had higher basal open probabilities, which limited their further increase by agonist or hypotonicity. The magnitude of this limitation revealed a clear correlation between the degree of over-activity (the molecular phenotype) and the severity of the disease over the entire spectrum (the biological phenotype). Thus, while other factors are at play, our results are consistent with the increased TRPV4 basal activity being a critical determinant of the severity of skeletal dysplasia. We discuss how the channel over-activity may lead to the “gain-of-function” phenotype and speculate that the function of wild-type TRPV4 may be secondary in normal bone development but crucial in an acute process such as fracture repair in the adult.

Yeast screens show aromatic residues at the end of the sixth helix anchor transient receptor potential channel gate

Transient receptor potential (TRP) channels are first elements in sensing chemicals, heat, and force and are widespread among protists and fungi as well as animals. Despite their importance, the arrangement and roles of the amino acids that constitute the TRP channel gate are unknown. The yeast TRPY1 is activated in vivo by osmotically induced vacuolar membrane deformation and by cytoplasmic Ca2+. After a random mutagenesis, we isolated TRPY1 mutants that responded more strongly to mild osmotic upshocks. One such gain-of-function mutant has a Y458H substitution at the C terminus of the predicted sixth transmembrane helix. Direct patch-clamp examination of vacuolar membranes showed that Y458H channels were already active with little stimulus and showed marked flickers between the open and intraburst closed states. They remained responsive to membrane stretch force and to Ca2+, indicating primary defects in the gate region but not in the sensing of gating principles. None of the other 18 amino acid replacements engineered here showed normal channel kinetics except the two aromatic substitutions, Y458F and Y458W. The Y458 of TRPY1 has its aromatic counterpart in mammalian TRPM. Furthermore, conserved aromatics one α-helical turn downstream from this point are also found in animal TRPC, TRPN, TRPP, and TRPML, suggesting that gate anchoring with aromatics may be common among many TRP channels. The possible roles of aromatics at the end of the sixth transmembrane helix are discussed.

Yeast gain-of-function mutations reveal structure–function relationships conserved among different subfamilies of transient receptor potential channels

Transient receptor potential (TRP) channels found in animals, protists, and fungi are primary chemo-, thermo-, or mechanosensors. Current research emphasizes the characteristics of individual channels in each animal TRP subfamily but not the mechanisms common across subfamilies. A forward genetic screen of the TrpY1, the yeast TRP channel, recovered gain-of-function (GOF) mutations with phenotype in vivo and in vitro. Single-channel patch-clamp analyses of these GOF-mutant channels show prominent aberrations in open probability and channel kinetics. These mutations revealed functionally important aromatic amino acid residues in four locations: at the intracellular end of the fifth transmembrane helix (TM5), at both ends of TM6, and at the immediate extension of TM6. These aromatics have counterparts in most TRP subfamilies. The one in TM5 (F380L) aligns precisely with an exceptional Drosophila mutant allele (F550I) that causes constitutive activity in the canonical TRP channel, resulting in rapid and severe retinal degeneration beyond mere loss of phototaxis. Thus, this phenylalanine maintains the balance of various functional states (conformations) of a channel for insect phototransduction as well as one for fungal mechanotransduction. This residue is among a small cluster of phenylalanines found in all known subfamilies of TRP channels. This unique case illustrates that GOF mutations can reveal structure–function principles that can be generalized across different TRP subfamilies. It appears that the conserved aromatics in the four locations have conserved functions in most TRP channels. The possible mechanistic roles of these aromatics and the further use of yeast genetics to dissect TRP channels are discussed.

Hypotonic shocks activate rat TRPV4 in yeast in the absence of polyunsaturated fatty acids

Transient‐receptor‐potential channels (TRPs) underlie the sensing of chemicals, heat, and mechanical force. We expressed the rat TRPV1 and TRPV4 subtypes in yeast and monitored their activities in vivo as Ca2+ rise using transgenic aequorin. Heat and capsaicin activate TRPV1 but not TRPV4 in yeast. Hypotonic shocks activate TRPV4 but not TRPV1. Osmotic swelling is modeled to activate enzyme(s), producing polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) to open TRPV4 in mammalian cells. This model relegates mechanosensitivity to the enzyme and not the channel. Yeast has only a single Δ9 fatty‐acid monodesaturase and cannot make PUFAs suggesting an alternative mechanism for TRPV4 activation. We discuss possible explanations of this difference.