Cell Biology and Metabolism Branch, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA-
Abstract: The sorting of integral membrane proteins such as carboxypeptidase S -Cps1p- into the luminal vesicles of multivesicular bodies -MVBs- in Saccharomyces cerevisiae requires ubiquitination of their cytosolic domains by the ubiquitin ligases Rsp5p and-or Tul1p- An exception is Sna3p, which does not require ubiquitination for entry into MVBs- The mechanism underlying this ubiquitination-independent MVB sorting pathway has not yet been characterized- Here, we show that Sna3p sorting into the MVB pathway depends on a direct interaction between a PPAY motif within its C-terminal cytosolic tail and the WW domains of Rsp5p- Disruption of this interaction inhibits vacuolar targeting of Sna3p and causes its accumulation in a compartment that overlaps only partially with MVBs- Surprisingly, Sna3p does require a functional ubiquitin-ligase HECT domain within Rsp5p; however, the dependence of Sna3p on HECT domain activity is distinct from that of Cps1p- Last, we show that Sna3p requires neither Tul1p nor the transmembrane adaptor protein Bsd2p for its MVB sorting- Our data demonstrate that Sna3p follows a novel ubiquitination-independent, but Rsp5p-mediated, sorting pathway to the vacuole-