Genetical and Biochemical Studies on the Metabolisms and Biological Roles of Membrane Phospholipids in Mammalian Cells

The genetical and biochemical approach is used as a powerful tool for the elucidation of the metabolic regulation as well as the biological significance of various constituents in living cells. This technique has been successfully applied to the membrane phospholipids in mammalian cells, actually to phosphatidylserine, sphingomyelin, and cardiolipin, all of which are rather minor constituents in membrane phospholipids. Isolation and characterization of the mutant cells defective in biosyntheses and biosynthetic regulations of these phospholipids led to the new findings of the in vivo biosynthetic pathways and also of the biological significance of these phospholipids. By analyzing the five different kinds of mutant cells unusual in metabolisms of phosphatidylserine in CHO-K1 cells, we found a series of the following evidence. Phosphatidylserine is synthesized by the two kinds of base-exchange enzymes, namely serine-exchange enzyme I and II, through the chain reactions in participation of phosphatidylserine decarboxylase ; phosphatidylcholine→phosphatidylserine→phosphatidylethanolamine→phosphatidylserine. The substrates of serine-exchange enzyme I are phosphatidylcholine, and either choline, serine, or ethanolamine, while those of serine-exchange enzyme II are phosphatidylethanolamine, and serine or ethanolamine but not choline. The last phosphatidylserine produced in consequence of the chain reaction again becomes a substrate of phosphatidylserine decarboxylase, and so this metabolic flow of the biosynthesis of phosphatidylserine is finally connected to a cyclic reaction between phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylserine catalyzed by serine-exchange enzyme II and phosphatidylserine decarboxylase. Localization of serineexchange enzyme I is on the cytoplasmic side of endoplasmic reticulum, while that of enzyme II is on its lumen side. There is a lot of evidence including our immunological observation that phosphatidylserine decarboxylase is exclusively located in the inner membrane of mitochondria. Thus, during the process of the above-mentioned reactions, phosphatidylserine have to move from endoplasmic reticulum to mitochondria, and phosphatidylethanolamine does from mitochondria to endoplasmic reticulum. The biological significance of these movements is now under investigation. Enveloped virus infection and its maturation are closely associated with the membrane functions of host mammalian cells. In order to get further information concerning the biological functions of phosphatidylserine and/or phosphatidylethanolamine in mammalian cell membranes, Sindbis virus infection system was examined. Deficiency of phosphatidylserine and/or phosphatidylethanolamine was found to give a profound effect on the maturation of the virus, mainly due to low efficiency of membrane fusion between the viral envelope and endosomal membranes of the host cells. All these results indicate that phosphatidylserine and/or phosphatidylethanolamine are essential to membrane fusion at least in enveloped viral infection. A temperature sensitive mutant of CHO-K1 cell with thermolabile serinepalmitoyl transferase, which catalyzes the first step in sphingolipid biosynthesis, was successfully isolated. Under the non-permissive condition the mutant cell has less than 1% of serine-palmitoyl transferase activity of the parent CHO cells and accordingly contains decreased amounts of all sphingolipids, namely sphingomyelin, glucosylceramide, and G_M3 ganglioside, indicating serine-palmitoyl transferase functions in the main pathway for sphingolipid biosynthesis. The temperature sensitive growth of this mutant suggested that sphingomyelin is responsible for cell growth, since only sphingomyelin (and sphingosine base) restored the growth of the mutant among the various sphingolipids. [the rest omitted]