Drs2p is a resident type 4 P-type ATPase (P4-ATPase) and potential phospholipid translocase of the trans-Golgi network (TGN) where it has been implicated in clathrin function. However, precise protein transport pathways requiring Drs2p and how it contributes to clathrin-coated vesicle budding remain unclear. Here we show a functional codependence between Drs2p and the AP-1 clathrin adaptor in protein sorting at the TGN and early endosomes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genetic criteria indicate that Drs2p and AP-1 operate in the same pathway and that AP-1 requires Drs2p for function. In addition, we show that loss of AP-1 markedly increases Drs2p trafficking to the plasma membrane, but does not perturb retrieval of Drs2p from the early endosome back to the TGN. Thus AP-1 is required at the TGN to sort Drs2p out of the exocytic pathway, presumably for delivery to the early endosome. Moreover, a conditional allele that inactivates Drs2p phospholipid translocase (flippase) activity disrupts its own transport in this AP-1 pathway. Drs2p physically interacts with AP-1; however, AP-1 and clathrin are both recruited normally to the TGN in drs2⌬ cells. These results imply that Drs2p acts independently of coat recruitment to facilitate AP-1/clathrin-coated vesicle budding from the TGN.
INTRODUCTIONClathrin mediates protein transport between the plasma membrane, endosomes, and TGN through association with pathway-specific adaptors that link integral membrane cargo proteins to the clathrin lattice during vesicle formation. In mammalian cells, the ubiquitously expressed heterotetrameric AP-1A clathrin adaptor, composed of ␥, 1, 1A, and 1-adaptins, appears to mediate both anterograde transport of proteins from the TGN to early endosomes, as well as the retrograde trip back to the TGN (Hinners and Tooze, 2003;Robinson, 2004). For its role in anterograde transport of lysosomal enzymes, AP-1A collaborates with monomeric adaptors called GGAs (Golgi localized, ␥-earcontaining, Arf-binding proteins) to recruit the mannose-6-phosphate receptor into clathrin-coated vesicles (CCVs; Doray et al., 2002). The AP-1B complex, which differs from AP-1A by an alternate 1B subunit, has a functionally distinct role in sorting cargo from the TGN to the basolateral membrane of polarized epithelial cells (Folsch et al., 1999). In budding yeast, there is evidence that AP-1 mediates early endosome to TGN retrograde transport (Valdivia et al., 2002;Foote and Nothwehr, 2006), but no anterograde role for AP-1 has yet been described. The yeast GGAs appear to function independently of AP-1 to mediate delivery of cargo from the TGN to the late endosome (Black and Pelham, 2000). Deletion of genes encoding AP-1 subunits or GGAs has little consequence to growth of yeast. However, the combined deletion of AP-1 and GGA causes a severe growth defect, suggesting that these two adaptors mediate parallel transport pathways and that yeast cannot tolerate loss of both pathways (Costaguta et al., 2001;Hirst et al., 2001).The mechanism of AP-1/clathrin-coated vesicle ...