GFP-like Proteins Stably Accumulate in Lysosomes

Cell Structure and Function

Atsushi Miyawaki³  Akitsugu Yamamoto¹  Noboru Mizushima⁴  Hiroyuki Katayama³  Tamotsu Yoshimori² 

[1] Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Bio-Science, Nagahama Institute of Bio-Science and Technology;Department of Cell Regulation, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University;Laboratory for Cell Function Dynamics, Advanced Technology Development Group, Brain Science Institute, RIKEN;Department of Physiology and Cell Biology Tokyo Medical and Dental University Graduate School and Faculty of Medicine

关键词: autophagy;    GFP-like protein;    fluorescent protein;    lysosome;    protein aggregation;   

DOI  :  10.1247/csf.07011

学科分类：分子生物学，细胞生物学和基因

来源: Japan Society for Cell Biology

【 摘 要 】

References(29)Cited-By(54)Green fluorescent protein (GFP) from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria, its GFP variants (Aequorea GFPs), and more recently the novel GFP-like proteins from Anthozoa have greatly advanced our technologies for fluorescently labeling cells, organelles, and proteins. It has been shown, however, that some GFP-like proteins have a tendency to oligomerize and aggregate. Transfection of GFP-like proteins into cultured mammalian cells results in bright punctate structures, which are thought to be cytosolic protein aggregates. In this study, we demonstrate that these structures are not cytosolic aggregates but lysosomes that have accumulated the GFP-like proteins. Our biochemical and immunocytochemical experiments have revealed that certain GFP-like proteins expressed in the cytosol enter lysosomes possibly by an autophagy-related mechanism, but retain their fluorescence because of resistance not only to acidity but also to lysosomal proteases.

【 授权许可】

Unknown