Actin assembly on membrane surfaces is an elusive process in which several phosphoinositides (PIPs) have been implicated. We have reconstituted actin assembly using a defined membrane surface, the latex bead phagosome (LBP), and shown that the PI(4,5)P 2 -binding proteins ezrin and/or moesin were essential for this process (Defacque et al., 2000b). Here, we provide several lines of evidence that both preexisting and newly synthesized PI(4,5)P 2 , and probably PI(4)P, are essential for phagosomal actin assembly; only these PIPs were routinely synthesized from ATP during in vitro actin assembly. Treatment of LBP with phospholipase C or with adenosine, an inhibitor of type II PI 4-kinase, as well as preincubation with anti-PI(4)P or anti-PI(4,5)P 2 antibodies all inhibited this process. Incorporation of extra PI(4)P or PI(4,5)P 2 into the LBP membrane led to a fivefold increase in the number of phagosomes that assemble actin. An ezrin mutant mutated in the PI(4,5)P 2 -binding sites was less efficient in binding to LBPs and in reconstituting actin assembly than wild-type ezrin. Our data show that PI 4-and PI 5-kinase, and under some conditions also PI 3-kinase, activities are present on LBPs and can be activated by ATP, even in the absence of GTP or cytosolic components. However, PI 3-kinase activity is not required for actin assembly, because the process was not affected by PI 3-kinase inhibitors. We suggest that the ezrin-dependent actin assembly on the LBP membrane may require active turnover of D4 and D5 PIPs on the organelle membrane.
INTRODUCTIONA significant fraction of the de novo nucleation of actin in cells occurs on the cytoplasmic surface of eukaryotic cell membranes, especially the plasma membrane (Tilney, 1976;Carraway and Carraway, 1989;Small et al., 1995;Mitchison and Cramer, 1996), and a role for phosphoinositides in this elusive process has been widely discussed (Divecha and Irvine, 1995;Martin, 1998;Caroni, 2001). However, the precise function of these lipids is still not clear and is likely to be quite complicated. In several cellular systems that show rapid actin assembly in response to extracellular ligands, synthesis of phosphoinositides, especially phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate [PI(4,5)P 2 ], and in some cases phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate [PI(3,4,5)P 3 ], coincides precisely with the transient burst of actin assembly (Eberle et al., 1990;Dobos et al., 1992;Apgar, 1995;Hartwig et al., 1995;Gachet et al., 1997). In addition, overexpression of phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate [PI(4)P] 5-kinase in cells leads to a significant polymerization of actin (Shibasaki et al., 1997). However, in other systems, the synthesis of PI(4,5)P 2 as well as PI(3,4,5)P 3 coincides more with actin depolymerization, after a transient assembly of F-actin (Apgar, 1995;Gratacap et al., 1998).One important clue to the functions of phosphoinositides in actin assembly/disassembly is that these lipids can bind in vitro to an increasing number of actin-binding proteins (ABPs). Interestingly, two different...