SUMMARY In an approach aimed at defining interacting partners of ceramide synthases (CerS), we found that fatty acyl CoA synthase ACSL5 interacts with all CerS. We demonstrate that ACSL5 generated FA-CoA was utilized with de novo ceramide for the generation of acylceramides, poorly studied ceramide metabolites. Functionally, inhibition of ceramide channeling to acylceramide enhanced accumulation of de novo ceramide and resulted in augmentation of ceramide-mediated apoptosis. Mechanistically, we show that acylceramide generation is catalyzed by diacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 (DGAT2) on lipid droplets. In summary, this study identifies a metabolic pathway of acylceramide generation and its sequestration in LD in cells and in livers of mice on a high fat diet. The study also implicates this novel pathway in ceramide-mediated apoptosis, and has implications in co-regulation of triglyceride and sphingolipid metabolisms.

Most fast excitatory synaptic transmission in the nervous system is mediated by glutamate acting through ionotropic glutamate receptors (iGluRs). iGluRs (AMPA, kainate, and NMDA receptor subtypes) are tetrameric assemblies, formed as a dimer of dimers. Still, the mechanism underlying tetramerization – the necessary step for the formation of functional receptors that can be inserted into the plasma membrane – is unknown. All eukaryotic compared to prokaryotic iGluR subunits have an additional transmembrane segment, the M4 segment, which positions the physiologically critical C-terminal domain on the cytoplasmic side of the membrane. AMPA receptor (AMPAR) subunits lacking M4 do not express on the plasma membrane. Here, we show that these constructs are retained in the endoplasmic reticulum, the major cellular compartment mediating protein oligomerization. Using approaches to assay the native oligomeric state of AMPAR subunits, we find that subunits lacking M4 or containing single amino-acid substitutions along an ‘interacting’ face of the M4 helix that block surface expression, no longer tetramerize in either homo- or heteromeric assemblies. In contrast, subunit dimerization appears to be largely intact. These experiments define the M4 segment as a unique functional unit in AMPARs that is required for the critical dimer to tetramer transition.

Identification of conserved proteins that act to establish the neuronal phenotype has relied predominantly on structural homologies of the underlying genes. In the case of the repressor element 1 silencing transcription factor (REST), a central player in blocking the neuronal phenotype in vertebrate non-neural tissue, the invertebrate homolog is absent, raising the possibility that distinct strategies are used to establish the CNS of invertebrates. Using a yeast two-hybrid screen designed specifically to identify functional analogs of REST, we show that Drosophila melanogaster uses a strategy that is functionally similar to, but appears to have evolved independently of, REST. The gene at the center of the strategy in flies encodes the repressor Tramtrack88 (Ttk88), a protein with no discernable homology to REST but that nonetheless is able to interact with the same transcriptional partners. Ttk88 uses the REST corepressor Drosophila CoREST to coordinately regulate a set of genes encoding the same neuronal hallmarks that are regulated by REST in vertebrates. Our findings indicate that repression is an important mechanism for regulating neuronal phenotype across phyla and suggest that co-option of a similar corepressor complex occurred to restrict expression of genes critical for neuronal function to a compartmentalized nervous system.

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