Bifunctional Sphingosine for Cell-Based Analysis of Protein-Sphingolipid Interactions

ACS Chem Biol. 2016 Jan 15;11(1):222-30. doi: 10.1021/acschembio.5b00810. Epub 2015 Nov 25.

Abstract

Sphingolipids are essential structural components of cellular membranes and are crucial regulators of cellular processes. While current high-throughput approaches allow for the systematic mapping of interactions of soluble proteins with their lipid-binding partners, photo-cross-linking is the only technique that enables for the proteome-wide mapping of integral membrane proteins with their direct lipid environment. Here, we report the synthesis of a photoactivatable and clickable analog of sphingosine (pacSph). When administered to sphingosine-1-phosphate lyase deficient cells, pacSph allows its metabolic fate and the subcellular flux of de novo synthesized sphingolipids to be followed in a time-resolved manner. The chemoproteomic profiling yielded over 180 novel sphingolipid-binding proteins, of which we validated a number, demonstrating the unique value of this technique as a discovery tool. This work provides an important resource for the understanding of the global cellular interplay between sphingolipids and their interacting proteins.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Molecular Structure
  • Protein Array Analysis
  • Protein Binding
  • Proteomics / methods*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sphingolipids / metabolism*
  • Sphingosine / analogs & derivatives*
  • Sphingosine / chemical synthesis
  • Sphingosine / chemistry*

Substances

  • Sphingolipids
  • Sphingosine