The N-terminal propeptide and the C terminus of the precursor to 20-kilo-dalton potato tuber protein can function as different types of vacuolar sorting signals

Plant Cell Physiol. 1999 Nov;40(11):1152-9. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.pcp.a029500.

Abstract

Two types of vacuolar sorting signals (VSSs), an asparagine-proline-isoleucine-arginine-leucine (NPIRL)-related VSS in the N-terminal propeptides (NTPPs) and a C-terminal VSS in the C-terminal propeptides (CTPPs), function differently in plant cells. A precursor to a 20-kDa protein of potato tuber (PT20) contains two NPIRL-related sequences, NPINL in a short NTPP and NPLDV close to the C terminus of the precursor. We made mutant forms of sweet potato sporamin (SPO), nPT20-SPO, in which the N-terminal pre-pro part was exchanged with that of the precursor to PT20, and SPO-PT20c, in which the C-terminal 13 amino acids of the precursor to PT20 was attached to the C terminus of delta pro-SPO which lacked NTPP. Both nPT20-SPO and SPO-PT20c were efficiently transported to the vacuoles in tobacco cells. Unlike nPT20-SPO, the vacuolar transport of SPO-PT20c was inhibited by wortmannin and by the C-terminal addition of Gly or Gly-Gly suggesting its similarity to the vacuolar transport of sporamin mediated by CTPP of barley lectin. Further analysis of the C-terminal sequence of PT20 indicated that the most C-terminal SFKQVQ sequence functions as the C-terminal VSS. These results suggest that the precursor to PT20 contains both NPIRL-like VSS in its NTPP and C-terminal VSS at the C terminus.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Enzyme Precursors / chemistry
  • Enzyme Precursors / metabolism*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Plant Proteins / chemistry
  • Plant Proteins / metabolism
  • Signal Transduction*
  • Solanum tuberosum / chemistry*
  • Trypsin Inhibitors / chemistry
  • Trypsin Inhibitors / metabolism*
  • Vacuoles / metabolism

Substances

  • Enzyme Precursors
  • Plant Proteins
  • Trypsin Inhibitors