Hj. Wu et al., SUBCELLULAR TARGETING AND CYTOSKELETAL ATTACHMENT OF SAP97 TO THE EPITHELIAL LATERAL MEMBRANE, Journal of Cell Science, 111, 1998, pp. 2365-2376
The synapse-associated protein SAP97 is a member of a novel family of
cortical cytoskeletal proteins involved in the localization of ion cha
nnels at such membrane specializations as synaptic junctions. These mu
ltidomain proteins have binding sites for protein 4.1, GKAPs/SAPAPs, v
oltage- and ligand-gated ion channels and cell-adhesion molecules cont
aining C-terminal T/SXV motifs. In this study, we evaluated the contri
bution of individual domains in SAP97 to its selective recruitment and
attachment to the cortical cytoskeleton in epithelial cells, We find
that the PDZ, SH3 and GK domains, as well as the I3 insert in SAP97, a
re not essential for subcellular targeting, though both PDZ1-2 domains
and the I3 insert affect the efficiency of localization, Instead, we
show that the first 65 amino acid residues in SAP97, which are absent
from SAP90/PSD-95 and SAP102, direct the selective subcellular localiz
ation and can mediate at least one point of attachment of SAP97 to the
cytoskeleton assembled at sites of cell-cell contact. Our data demons
trate that it is the sequences unique to SAP97 that direct its subcell
ular targeting to the epithelial lateral membrane.