A role for amphiphysin in AP-1/clathrin coat formation

Transport of cargo within the endocytic and secretory pathway is generally mediated by coated vesicles. Clathrin, in combination with different adaptor proteins, is the major coat protein for vesicle formation at the plasma membrane, endosomes, and the trans-Golgi network (TGN). Best characterized is the formation of clathrin coats for endocytosis at the plasma membrane involving the adaptor protein complex AP-2. Clathrin and AP-2 were shown to be at the centre of a complex interactome of proteins accessory to vesicle formation. Considerably less is known about the formation of clathrin coated carriers at the TGN and endosomes, where the adaptor protein complex AP-1 plays a major role.
In vitro studies showed the minimal requirements for association of AP-1 to liposomal membranes to be activated ARF1, phosphoinositides, and either sorting signals or unknown cytosolic factors. We have used a liposome floatation assay to identify cytosolic proteins collaborating with AP-1 at the membrane. Separation of proteins from bovine brain cytosol with several chromatographic methods yielded an active fraction containing amphiphysin 1, amphiphysin 2, and endophilin A1. All three proteins are expressed in brain and known to be involved in AP-2/clathrin coat formation. They consist of an N-terminal N-BAR (Bin, amphiphysin, Rvs) domain for dimerization and membrane binding and a C-terminal SH3 (Src homology 3) domain for interaction with dynamin and synaptojanin. Amphiphysin 1 and 2 in addition contain a middle domain with binding sites for adaptors and clathrin. It was proposed that amphiphysins and endophilin are targeted to membranes with high curvature, such as the neck of a forming vesicle, where they recruit dynamin and synaptojanin in preparation for vesicle fission and uncoating.
In this thesis, I bacterially expressed and purified all three proteins and tested them in the floatation assay for AP-1 membrane binding activity. Only amphiphysin 2 showed activity, both as a homodimer and as a heterodimer with amphiphysin 1. Activity depended on a motif that was shown to bind to AP-1, AP-2, and clathrin in GST pull-down experiments.
Endogenous amphiphysins in primary neurons, as well as transiently expressed in neuronal or fibroblast cell lines, co-localized with AP-1 at the TGN. In addition, when expressed at high levels in neuronal cells, amphiphysins aggregated and interfered dominantly with the TGN localization of AP-1. Both phenomena depended on the presence of the clathrin and adaptor interaction sequence in the amphiphysins. Furthermore, both amphiphysins could be cross-linked to AP-1 in vivo.
Our results indicate that amphiphysin 1 and 2 function not only in clathrin coated vesicle formation for endocytosis at the plasma membrane, but are also part of the machinery forming AP-1/clathrin coats at the TGN and endosomes. This suggests that the machineries for CCV formation with AP-1 and AP-2 at different locations in the cell share more components than previously anticipated.