Sterol traffic between the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and plasma membrane (PM) is a fundamental cellular process that occurs by a poorly understood non-vesicular mechanism. We identified a novel, evolutionarily diverse family of ER membrane proteins with StART-like lipid transfer domains and studied them in yeast. StART-like domains from Ysp2p and its paralog Lam4p specifically bind sterols, and Ysp2p, Lam4p and their homologs Ysp1p and Sip3p target punctate ER-PM contact sites distinct from those occupied by known ER-PM tethers. The activity of Ysp2p, reflected in amphotericin-sensitivity assays, requires its second StART-like domain to be positioned so that it can reach across ER-PM contacts. Absence of Ysp2p, Ysp1p or Sip3p reduces the rate at which exogenously supplied sterols traffic from the PM to the ER. Our data suggest that these StART-like proteins act in trans to mediate a step in sterol exchange between the PM and ER.
Membranes are crucial structures for cells that are made primarily of fat molecules. The most important membrane is the external one that surrounds cells and keeps the outside world out and cellular contents in. The single most common fat component in the external membrane is cholesterol, which makes the membrane rigid and better able to withstand the outside world. So even though excess cholesterol contributes to diseases such as heart disease, stroke and Alzheimer's, the external membrane of every cell needs about a billion cholesterol molecules for its normal function. But how do cells manage the traffic of these molecules to their destination?
It is known that when external membranes are short of cholesterol they make it at a different cellular location. There is an internal network—called the endoplasmic reticulum—that spreads just about everywhere throughout the cell. This network is where fats like cholesterol are made when the cell has not got enough, and where they are converted into an inert form when the cell has too much. What is not known is how cholesterol moves to and fro between this network and the external membrane.
One theory is that cholesterol and other fats move only where the internal network comes into close contact with the external membrane, without quite touching. This theory comes in part from the finding that many of the proteins found in the narrow gaps between the internal network and the external membrane are capable of transferring fats across the gap. However, one of the missing supports for this theory is that no protein that transfers cholesterol across this gap has been found.
Gatta, Wong, Sere et al. used computational tools to scan the database of known proteins for those that might be able to transfer cholesterol, and found a new family of fat transfer proteins. Further experiments showed that these proteins only bind to cholesterol out of all the fats. Next, Gatta, Wong, Sere et al. studied what the proteins do in cells, but instead of looking at the proteins in human cells they studied the related proteins in yeast. This is because the details of both the traffic of cholesterol and contacts between the internal network and the external membrane are in many respects understood better in yeast than in human cells.
Gatta, Wong, Sere et al. found the cholesterol transfer proteins were embedded in regions where the internal network was in close contact with the external membrane. Also, in cells that lacked these proteins, cholesterol added to the external membrane had difficulty transferring to the internal network.
These results together suggest that the newly identified lipid transfer proteins exchange lipids between the plasma membrane and endoplasmic reticulum at membrane contact sites. Further research is required to understand in detail how these proteins work.