Peroxisomal fatty acid degradation in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae requires an array of beta-oxidation enzyme activities as well as a set of auxiliary activities to provide the beta-oxidation machinery with the proper substrates. The corresponding classical and auxiliary enzymes of beta-oxidation have been completely characterized, many at the structural level with the identification of catalytic residues. Import of fatty acids from the growth medium involves passive diffusion in combination with an active, protein-mediated component that includes acyl-CoA ligases, illustrating the intimate linkage between fatty acid import and activation. The main factors involved in protein import into peroxisomes are also known, but only one peroxisomal metabolite transporter has been characterized in detail, Ant1p, which exchanges intraperoxisomal AMP with cytosolic ATP. The other known transporter is Pxa1p-Pxa2p, which bears similarity to the human adrenoleukodystrophy protein ALDP. The major players in the regulation of fatty acid-induced gene expression are Pip2p and Oaf1p, which unite to form a transcription factor that binds to oleate response elements in the promoter regions of genes encoding peroxisomal proteins. Adr1p, a transcription factor, binding upstream activating sequence 1, also regulates key genes involved in beta-oxidation. The development of new, postgenomic-era tools allows for the characterization of the entire transcriptome involved in beta-oxidation and will facilitate the identification of novel proteins as well as the characterization of protein families involved in this process.

The requirement for small molecule transport systems across the peroxisomal membrane has previously been postulated, but not directly proven. Here we report the identification and functional reconstitution of Ant1p (Ypr128cp), a peroxisomal transporter in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which has the characteristic sequence features of the mitochondrial carrier family. Ant1p was found to be an integral protein of the peroxisomal membrane and expression of ANT1 was oleic acid inducible. Targeting of Ant1p to peroxisomes was dependent on Pex3p and Pex19p, two peroxins specifically required for peroxisomal membrane protein insertion. Ant1p was essential for growth on medium-chain fatty acids as the sole carbon source. Upon reconstitution of the overexpressed and purified protein into liposomes, specific transport of adenine nucleotides could be demonstrated. Remarkably, both the substrate and inhibitor specificity differed from those of the mitochondrial ADP/ATP transporter. The physiological role of Ant1p in S.cerevisiae is probably to transport cytoplasmic ATP into the peroxisomal lumen in exchange for AMP generated in the activation of fatty acids.

Targeting of peroxisomal membrane proteins (PMPs) is a multistep process that requires not only recognition of PMPs in the cytosol but also their insertion into the peroxisomal membrane. As a consequence, targeting signals of PMPs (mPTS) are rather complex. A candidate protein for the PMP recognition event is Pex19p, which interacts with most PMPs. However, the respective Pex19p-binding sites are ill-defined and it is currently disputed whether these sites are contained within mPTS. By using synthetic peptide scans and yeast two-hybrid analyses, we determined and characterized Pex19p-binding sites in Pex11p and Pex13p, two PMPs from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The sites turned out to be composed of a short helical motif with a minimal length of 11 amino acids. With the acquired data, it proved possible to predict and experimentally verify Pex19p-binding sites in several other PMPs by applying a pattern search and a prediction matrix. A peroxisomally targeted Pex13p fragment became mislocalized to the endoplasmic reticulum in the absence of its Pex19p-binding site. By adding the heterologous binding site of Pex11p, peroxisomal targeting of the Pex13p fragment was restored. We conclude that Pex19p-binding sites are well-defined entities that represent an essential part of the mPTS. INTRODUCTIONPeroxisomes are ubiquitous organelles of eukaryotic cells, whose proteins are imported posttranslationally. Matrix proteins are directed to peroxisomes by either of two targeting signals, a C-terminal PTS1 or an N-terminal PTS2. The topogenesis of peroxisomal membrane proteins (PMPs) is accomplished by yet another mechanism, because most of the peroxin mutants, characterized by their defect in the biogenesis of peroxisomes, exhibit a block in matrix protein import, but do import PMPs normally (Lazarow and Fujiki, 1985;Gould and Valle, 2000;Subramani et al., 2000;Purdue and Lazarow, 2001;Eckert and Erdmann, 2003). To date, only three peroxins with a potential role in PMP targeting have been identified, namely Pex3p (Hettema et al., 2000;South et al., 2000), Pex16p in mammals (South and Gould, 1999;Honsho et al., 2002), and Pex19p (Gö tte et al., 1998;Matsuzono et al., 1999;Snyder et al., 1999;Soukupova et al., 1999). In cells lacking any of these proteins, PMPs are either degraded or mistargeted to other subcellular compartments such as mitochondria, the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and membranes of unknown origin (Ghaedi et al., 2000;Hettema et al., 2000;Sacksteder et al., 2000).In accordance with a distinct pathway, PMPs use neither PTS1 nor PTS2. The targeting signals of PMPs (mPTS) that direct and insert PMPs into the peroxisomal membrane have been determined for a number of PMPs of several species. Despite some differences, a picture emerged from these studies of a targeting signal consisting of one or more transmembrane domains in conjunction with a short sequence, which contains either a cluster of basic residues or a mixture of basic and hydrophobic amino acids (Dyer et al., 1996;Baerends et al., 2000b;Pause et al., 2000;...

Key Points• ADAMTS13 dissolves t-PAresistant cerebral occlusions in a mouse model of stroke.• The thrombolytic activity of ADAMTS13 could become useful for more efficient and safer thrombolytic treatment of acute ischemic stroke.Rapid vascular recanalization forms the basis for successful treatment of cerebral ischemia. Currently, tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) is the only approved thrombolytic drug for ischemic stroke. However, t-PA does not always result in efficient thrombus dissolution and subsequent blood vessel recanalization. To better understand thrombus composition, we analyzed thrombi retrieved from ischemic stroke patients and found a distinct presence of von Willebrand factor (VWF) in various samples. Thrombi contained on average 20.3% 6 10.1% VWF, and this was inversely correlated with thrombus red blood cell content. We hypothesized that ADAMTS13 can exert a thrombolytic effect in VWF-containing thrombi in the setting of stroke. To test this, we generated occlusive VWF-rich thrombi in the middle cerebral artery (MCA) of mice. Infusion of t-PA did not dissolve these MCA occlusions. Interestingly, administration of ADAMTS13 5 minutes after occlusion dose-dependently dissolved these t-PA-resistant thrombi resulting in fast restoration of MCA patency and consequently reduced cerebral infarct sizes (P < .005). Delayed ADAMTS13 administration 60 minutes after occlusion was still effective but to a lesser extent (P < .05). These data show for the first time a potent thrombolytic activity of ADAMTS13 in the setting of stroke, which might become useful in treatment of acute ischemic stroke.