Nicole Ramos Solis
“Understanding the molecular mechanisms of Sorting Nexin proteins”
Nicole Ramos Solìs, ShiYu Wang and Avital A. Rodal
University of Puerto Rico at Humacao / Microbiology
Hosted by Rodal's Lab
Abstract
Endosomal traffic is a mechanism of active transport by which cells transport molecules and communicate between cells. Understanding the mechanisms of compartmentalized biochemical events in endosomal trafficking is crucial to understanding the regulation of signaling effects. Defects in endosomal proteins are known to be associated with neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Sorting Nexin proteins are a diverse family of membrane-associated proteins that are involved in endosomal trafficking. These proteins are classified by the presence of a membrane-targeting phox-homology (PX) domain, as additional domains that contribute to their functions in diverse endosomal trafficking processes.
In this poster, I will focus on two of the Sorting Nexin family members: Sorting Nexin 1 (SNX1) and Sorting Nexin 16 (SNX16). In our previous study, we have discovered that SNX1-mediated retromer traffic is critical for controlling amyloid precursor protein (APP) exosome levels. We have also found that changes in SNX16 self-association level might lead to mis-regulation of signaling effects at Drosophila neuromuscular junction (NMJ). In this study, I generated a phosphorylation mutant (S216D) of SNX1 using Site Direct Mutagenesis to investigate the importance of phosphorylation of SNX1 in endosomal traffic and its interaction with other binding partners in the context of APP traffic at NMJ. I am also in the process of making new SNX16 constructs with a pair of Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) fluorescent proteins, to visualize the self-association level of SNX16 in vivo.
Support
MRSEC REU