Unconjugated
Commander is a multiprotein complex that orchestrates endosomal recycling of integral cargo proteins and is essential for normal development. While the structure of this complex has recently been described, how cargo proteins are selected for Commander-mediated recycling remains unclear. Here we identify the mechanism through which the unstructured carboxy-terminal tail of the cargo adaptor sorting nexin-17 (SNX17) directly binds to the Retriever sub-complex of Commander. SNX17 adopts an autoinhibited conformation where its carboxy-terminal tail occupies the cargo binding groove. Competitive cargo binding overcomes this autoinhibition, promoting SNX17 endosomal residency and the release of the tail for Retriever association. Furthermore, our study establishes the central importance of SNX17-Retriever association in the handover of integrin and lipoprotein receptor cargoes into pre-existing endosomal retrieval sub-domains. In describing the principal mechanism of cargo entry into the Commander recycling pathway we provide key insight into the function and regulation of this evolutionary conserved sorting pathway.
Regulation of the luminal pH of late endocytic compartments in continuously fed mammalian cells is poorly understood. Using normal rat kidney fibroblasts, we investigated the reversible assembly/disassembly of the proton pumping V-ATPase when endolysosomes are formed by kissing and fusion of late endosomes with lysosomes and during the subsequent reformation of lysosomes. We took advantage of previous work showing that sucrosomes formed by the uptake of sucrose are swollen endolysosomes from which lysosomes are reformed after uptake of invertase. Using confocal microscopy and subcellular fractionation of NRK cells stably expressing fluorescently tagged proteins, we found net recruitment of the V1 subcomplex during sucrosome formation and loss during lysosome reformation, with a similar time course to RAB7a loss. Addition of invertase did not alter mTORC1 signalling, suggesting that the regulation of reversible V-ATPase assembly/disassembly in continuously fed cells differs from that in cells subject to amino acid depletion/re-feeding. Using live cell microscopy, we demonstrated recruitment of a fluorescently tagged V1 subunit during endolysosome formation and a dynamic equilibrium and rapid exchange between the cytosolic and membrane bound pools of this subunit. We conclude that reversible V-ATPase assembly/disassembly plays a key role in regulating endolysosomal/lysosomal pH in continuously fed cells. [Media: see text] [Media: see text] [Media: see text] [Media: see text].