Name: a simple fluorescence-based reporter assay to identify cellular components required for ricin toxin a chain (rta) trafficking in yeast
Uploaded: 2017-12-15T15:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about A Simple Fluorescence-based Reporter Assay to Identify Cellular Components Required for Ricin Toxin A Chain RTA Trafficking in Yeast at JoVE.com

Parts of this study were kindly supported by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 1027, A6).

NOTE: An overview of the general experimental workflow is depicted in Figure 1.
Caution: RTA is highly toxic for humans. Safety lab permission S2 (biosafety level 2 equivalent) is needed. Please wear gloves during the entire experiment.
1. Heterologous Expression of His-tagged RTA in Escherichia coli
<ol>
	<li>Transform E. coli cells with the expression plasmid pET24-RTA(His)6 or the empty vector pET24a<su...

<ol>
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K., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=A+comprehensive+strategy+enabling+high-resolution+functional+analysis+of+the+yeast+genome.">A comprehensive strategy enabling high-resolution functional analysis of the yeast genome.</a> Nat Methods. 5 (8), 711-718 (2008).</li><li>Jablonowski, D., Schaffrath, R. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Zymocin,+a+composite+chitinase+and+tRNase+killer+toxin+from+yeast.">Zymocin, a composite chitinase and tRNase killer toxin from yeast.</a> Biochem Soc Trans. 35 (Pt 6), 1533-1537 (2007).</li><li>Jablonowski, D., Schaffrath, R. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Saccharomyces+cerevisiae+RNA+polymerase+II+is+affected+by+Kluyveromyces+lactis+zymocin.">Saccharomyces cerevisiae RNA polymerase II is affected by Kluyveromyces lactis zymocin.</a> J Biol Chem. 277 (29), 26276-26280 (2002).</li><li>Jablonowski, D., Frohloff, F., Fichtner, L., Stark, M. 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When performing the above protocol, we recommend the following suggestions to achieve a successful outcome of the experiment.
For heterologous protein expression, it is important to not exceed the IPTG concentration of 1 mM. IPTG concentrations &#62;1 mM inhibit promoter-induced RTA expression and lead to lower toxin yields. Furthermore, cells should not be cultivated at temperatures higher than 28 &#176;C to prevent inclusion body formation, inefficient folding, and toxin inactivation. RTA ex...

Patients suffering from infections by toxin producing bacteria represent a severe medical and financial burden for each social health care system, in particular since efficient therapeutic treatments are still largely missing. To develop new therapeutic strategies, the complex intoxication mechanisms of medically relevant A/B toxins such as cholera toxin, Shiga toxin, or ricin need to be fully understood at the molecular level based on novel powerful assays that have to be implemented.
In recent years, several studies attempted to analyze A/B toxin transport in yeast and mammalian cells by using time-consuming and cost-intensive methods such as radioactive toxin labeling1,2 as well as siRNA-based screening approaches3. In some cases, toxin trafficking has been visualized in vivo by fluorescence microscopy after chemical and/or genetic coupling of individual toxin subunits with fluorophores, quantum dots, or fluorescent proteins4,5. Unfortunately, such modifications often lead to inactive and/or altered natural properties of the toxins. Another elegant way to indirectly answer a wide variety of scientific questions is the use of reporter systems based on enzymes such as lacZ, luciferase, or fluorescent proteins (e.g. GFP or Discosoma sp. red fluorescent protein (dsRed)).
In this manuscript, a simple protocol is described which identifies cellular components required for the intracellular transport of extracellularly applied RTA in S. cerevisiae. Thereby, a fluorescence-reporter plasmid containing an N-terminal ER-import signal followed by GFP acts as a protein biosynthesis sensor, which indirectly measures RTA-mediated protein translation inhibition by GFP fluorescence emission after in vivo translation6. In case that RTA endocytosis and/or intracellular trafficking is negatively (or positively) affected in a particular yeast deletion mutant compared to wild-type, this can be detected through an increase (or decrease) in GFP fluorescence emission6.
So far, all methods analyzing RTA transport in yeast cells were restricted to the ER-to-cytosol retro-translocation process of RTA. In such an artificial system, RTA containing an ER import signal is expressed from an inducible promoter resulting in a suicidal phenotype1,7. Although the cell binding B-subunit of ricin is likewise missing in the experimental setup described in this manuscript and, thus, does not fully represent the natural situation of ricin holotoxin intoxication8, toxin transport from the plasma membrane through the Golgi apparatus to the ER can be closely mimicked with this novel assay. Interestingly, the preliminary results obtained in the pilot study indicate that the trafficking pathways used by RTA reveal striking similarities with the intoxication route of ricin holotoxin.
In summary, the described method can be used to determine the specific role of selected cellular proteins in RTA endocytosis and trafficking in yeast. Furthermore, this experimental setup might be easily adapted to other ribosome inactivating toxins produced and secreted from various yeast and bacterial species such as zymocin or Shiga toxin.

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Bacterial and yeast strains</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>E coli BL21 DE3(Gold)</td>
			<td>Aligent Technologies</td>
			<td>230130</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>S. cerevisiae BY4742</td>
			<td>Euroscarf</td>
			<td>Y10000</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>S. cerevisiae BY4742 deletion mutants</td>
			<td>Dharmacon</td>
			<td>YSC1054</td>
			<td>whole collection</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Name</td>
			<td>Company</td>
			<td>Catalog Number</td>
			<td>Comments</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Plasmids used in this protocol</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>pET24a(+) (Novagen)</td>
			<td>Millipore</td>
			<td>69772-3</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>pET-RTA(His6)</td>
			<td>Becker et al. (2016)3</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Name</td>
			<td>Company</td>
			<td>Catalog Number</td>
			<td>Comments</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Reagents</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Zymolyase 20T</td>
			<td>USBio</td>
			<td>Z1000.250</td>
			<td>lytic enzyme for cell wall removal</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>LB broth medium</td>
			<td>Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td>10855021</td>
			<td>15 g agar was added for plate production</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>YNB</td>
			<td>Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td>DF0335-15-9</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Ammonium sulfate</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>A4418-100G</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Yeast drop-out mix supplemts without leucine</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>Y1376-20G</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Agar</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>05040-100G</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>D-glucose</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>G8270-100G</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>DTT</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>10197777001</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>D-raffinose</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>83400-25G</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>D-sorbitol</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>S1876-1KG</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>D-galactose</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>G0750-10MG</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>G418</td>
			<td>Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td>11811031</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>IPTG</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>I6758-1G</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Imidazole</td>
			<td>Roth</td>
			<td>3899.1</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PAGE ruler prestained</td>
			<td>Fermentas</td>
			<td>26616</td>
			<td>protein ladder used for Western analysis</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Name</td>
			<td>Company</td>
			<td>Catalog Number</td>
			<td>Comments</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Material for RTA purification, desalting and reader measurements</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Spectrophotometer Ultrospec 2100 pro</td>
			<td>Amersham</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Soniprep 150</td>
			<td>MSE</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>old model, other models available</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Fluoroskan Ascent</td>
			<td>Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td>5210470</td>
			<td>old model, not available anymore</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>&#196;KTAPurifier</td>
			<td>Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td>28406266</td>
			<td>Product is discontinued and replaced</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HisTRAP HP column</td>
			<td>GE Healthcare</td>
			<td>17-5248-02</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>HiTRAP desalting column</td>
			<td>GE Healthcare</td>
			<td>11-0003-29</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Midisart sterile filter</td>
			<td>Sartorius</td>
			<td>16534K</td>
			<td>0.2 &#181;m pore size</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>BCA protein assay kit</td>
			<td>Pierce</td>
			<td>23225</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>660 nm assay kit</td>
			<td>Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td>22660</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>96 well plates</td>
			<td>Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td>260860</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Name</td>
			<td>Company</td>
			<td>Catalog Number</td>
			<td>Comments</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Antibodies (optional)</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Anti-Tetra-His</td>
			<td>Qiagen</td>
			<td>34670</td>
			<td>primary antibody; 1:1,000 dilution</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Anti-mouse-HRP</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>A9044-2ML</td>
			<td>secondary antibody, 1:10,000 dilution</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

a simple fluorescence-based reporter assay to identify cellular components required for ricin toxin a chain (rta) trafficking in yeast

Bacterial and plant A/B toxins exploit the natural trafficking pathways in eukaryotic cells to reach their intracellular target(s) in the cytosol and to ultimately kill. Such A/B toxins generally consist of an enzymatically active Asubunit (e.g., ricin toxin A (RTA)) and one or more cell binding Bsubunit(s), which are responsible for toxin binding to specific cell surface receptors. Our current knowledge of how A/B toxins are capable of efficiently intoxicating cells helped scientists to understand fundamental cellular mechanisms, like endocytosis and intracellular protein sorting in higher eukaryotic cells. From a medical point of view, it is likewise important to identify the major toxin trafficking routes to find adequate treatment solutions for patients or to eventually develop therapeutic toxin-based applications for cancer therapy.
Since genome-wide analyses of A/B toxin trafficking in mammalian cells is complex, time-consuming, and expensive, several studies on A/B toxin transport have been performed in the yeast model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Despite being less complex, fundamental cellular processes in yeast and higher eukaryotic cells are similar and very often results obtained in yeast can be transferred to the mammalian situation.
Here, we describe a fast and easy to use reporter assay to analyze the intracellular trafficking of RTA in yeast. An essential advantage of the new assay is the opportunity to investigate not only RTA retro-translocation from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) into the cytosol, but rather endocytosis and retrograde toxin transport from the plasma membrane into the ER. The assay makes use of a reporter plasmid that allows indirect measurement of RTA toxicity through fluorescence emission of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) after in vivo translation. Since RTA efficiently prevents the initiation of protein biosynthesis by 28S rRNA depurination, this assay allows the identification of host cell proteins involved in intracellular RTA transport through the detection of changes in fluorescence emission.

The general workflow of the protocol described in this manuscript is illustrated in Figure 1, roughly summarizing the single steps for successful RTA purification and the subsequent GFP reporter assay experiment. A more detailed description of each individual step can be found in the protocol. Figure 2 illustrates the expected result of a successful RTA purification by affinity chromatography (Figure 2A</stro...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about A Simple Fluorescence-based Reporter Assay to Identify Cellular Components Required for Ricin Toxin A Chain RTA Trafficking in Yeast at JoVE.com

A Simple Fluorescence-based Reporter Assay to Identify Cellular Components Required for Ricin Toxin A Chain RTA Trafficking in Yeast

In the manuscript, we describe the use of a yeast-based fluorescence reporter assay to identify cellular components involved in the trafficking and killing processes of the cytotoxic A subunit of the plant toxin ricin (RTA).

A Simple Fluorescence-based Reporter Assay to Identify Cellular Components Required for Ricin Toxin A Chain (RTA) Trafficking in Yeast

Bacterial and plant A/B toxins exploit the natural trafficking pathways in eukaryotic cells to reach their intracellular target(s) in the cytosol and to ...

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