I owe special thanks to Marnix Wieffer and Michael Krauß, who spent a lot of time helping me to get started in the lab, to overcome numerous experimental problem, I was not sure how to deal with, and frequently joined in discussions about my project with excellent advice. I am really grateful for your experimental support, Michael, and the time you invested in the project during our paper revision.Further, I would like to thank Jocelyn Laporte and his group, especially Anne-Sophie Nicot, at the IGBMC in Strasbourg for their support and a very fruitful collaboration, and Carsten Schultz and his group at the EMBL in Heidelberg for their support and constant supply with PIP/AMs. I owe special thanks to Dmytro Puchkov for the ultrastructural analysis and Eberhard Krause for mass spectrometry done within this project. I also need to acknowledge Markus Wenk and Federico Torta at the Singapore Lipidomics Incubator for joining the project at a very late stage, when we urgently needed help from lipidomics specialists. It was a pity that experiments did not work out as planned.I would further like to express my gratitude to two very skilled technicians in the AG Haucke lab: Silke Zillmann and Delia Löwe. Without your help it would have been impossible to achieve so much within the limited amount of time I had during the paper revision. by VPS34-IN1 treatment................................................... 52 2.3.11 Fluorescence microscopy................................................................................. 53 2.3.12 Flow cytometry............................................................................................ III SummaryPhosphoinositides (PIs) are a minor class of short-lived phospholipids that serve as crucial signposts of membrane identity. Thereby, PIs full fill important functions in cell signaling and membrane transport. PI 4-phosphates such as phosphatitylinositol-4-phosphate (PI(4)P) and phosphatitylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate (PI(4,5)P 2 ) are enriched at the plasma membrane (PM), on secretory organelles and lysosomes, while PI 3-phosphates, i.e.phosphatitylinositol-3-phosphate (PI(3)P), are a hallmark of the endosomal system.Directional transport between these compartments, thus, requires regulated PI conversion.However, PI conversion in exit from PI(3)P-enriched endosomes en route to the PI(4)P-and PI(4,5)P 2 -positive PM in endosomal recycling remained unknown.Here, we report that cargo exit from endosomes requires removal of PI(3)P by the PI(3)P 3-phosphatase myotubularin 1 (MTM1), and concomitant PI(4)P synthesis by PI 4-kinase type II α (PI4K2α). Loss of MTM1 causes endosomal accumulation of PI(3)P and PI(3)P effector proteins, i.e. sorting nexins, Kif16b-mediated outward traffic of PI(3)P containing endosomes and sub-plasmalemmal accumulation of exocytosis-deficient endosomes. As PI4K2α associates with MTM1 and thereby facilitates membrane recruitment of MTM1, these phenotypic changes are mimicked by loss of PI4K2α. The conversion of PI(3)P-to-PI(4)P is paralleled by a switch i...

Phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate (PtdIns(3)P) is a phospholipid residing on early endosomes, where it is proposed to be involved in endosomal fusion. We synthesized membrane-permeant derivatives of PtdIns(3)P, including a caged version that is to our knowledge the first photoactivatable phosphoinositide derivative developed so far. In living cells, photoactivation of caged PtdIns(3)P induced rapid endosomal fusion in an EEA1-dependent fashion, thus providing in vivo evidence that PtdIns(3)P is a sufficient signal for driving this process.

The ratio of different phosphoinositide species coordinates actomyosin contractility and plasma membrane expansion during tissue morphogenesis, thus ensuring proper cell shape.

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The continuous detection of enzyme activities and their application in medical diagnostics is one of the challenges in the translational sciences. Proteinases represent one of the largest groups of enzymes in the human genome and many diseases are based on malfunctions of proteolytic activity. Fluorescent sensors may shed light on regular and irregular proteinase activity in vitro and in vivo and provide a deeper insight into the function of these enzymes and their role in pathophysiological processes. The focus of this review is on Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based proteinase sensors and reporters because these probes are most likely to provide quantitative data. The medical relevance of proteinases are discussed using lung diseases as a prominent example. Probe design and probe targeting are described and fluorescent probe development for disease-relevant proteinases, including matrix-metalloproteinases, cathepsins, caspases, and other selected proteinases, is reviewed.