Biology subjects

Pohl, S.

Publications and source records attributed to Pohl, S..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Absolute Quantification of Lysosomal Proteins by Multiple Reaction Monitoring Mass Spectrometry and QconCAT Protein Standards

ABSTRACTLysosomes are membrane-enclosed organelles that play a crucial role in the degradation of intra- and extracellular substrates and the regulation of metabolic signaling. These functions are carried out by a variety of proteins, of which > 150 are currently known to be located in the lysosomal lumen or to be embedded in its membrane. These proteins are typically low abundant, necessitating organelle enrichment experiments to enable their investigation by unbiased mass spectrometry-based proteomics analyses. Enrichment strategies have been applied in a plethora of studies to gain a deeper understanding of lysosomal composition and relative changes of lysosomal proteome abundance in a variety of pathological conditions. Such experiments are restricted, however, to selected cell lines and tissues and do not allow a direct analysis of the lysosomal proteome from whole cell or tissue lysates. Furthermore, they do not provide absolute quantities. We developed a multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry-based assay for the highly sensitive and reproducible absolute quantification of 143 mouse lysosomal proteins from any type of sample following the QconCAT strategy. We applied our approach to the investigation of mouse embryonic fibroblast whole cell lysates and lysosome-enriched fractions, providing absolute copy numbers per cell/lysosome for lysosomal hydrolases and membrane proteins. These data reveal a dynamic range of more than three orders of magnitude in protein expression and strong differences in the subcellular distribution of individual lysosomal proteins. Furthermore, we applied our strategy to the investigation of four primary cell types (macrophages, lung fibroblasts, osteoblasts, and osteoclasts), demonstrating pathway-specific heterogeneity of individual lysosomal protein classes and indicating protein-specific post-transcriptional regulation of expression levels.

molecular biology↗

bioRxiv2024

GRASP55 Safeguards Proper Lysosome Function by Controlling Sorting of Lysosomal Enzymes at the Golgi

Lysosomes are multifunctional organelles that play important roles in cellular recycling, signaling, and homeostasis, relying on precise trafficking and activation of lysosomal enzymes. While the Golgi apparatus plays a central role in lysosomal enzyme sorting, the mechanisms linking Golgi function to lysosomal activity remain incompletely understood. Here, we identify the Golgi-resident protein GRASP55, but not its paralog GRASP65, as a key regulator of lysosome function. More specifically, we demonstrate that loss of GRASP55 expression leads to missorting and secretion of lysosomal enzymes, lysosomal dysfunction and bloating. GRASP55 deficiency also disrupts lysosomal mTORC1 signaling, reducing the phosphorylation of its lysosomal substrates, TFEB and TFE3, while sparing its non-lysosomal targets. Mechanistically, GRASP55 interacts with GNPTAB, a critical enzyme required for mannose 6-phosphate (M6P) tagging of lysosomal enzymes, and is necessary for its correct trafficking and stability. These findings reveal an essential role for GRASP55 in Golgi-lysosome communication and lysosomal enzyme trafficking, and suggest that GRASP55/GORASP2 may act as a susceptibility gene for lysosomal storage disorder (LSD)-like conditions. Overall, this work underscores the importance of Golgi-mediated protein sorting in lysosome function and lysosomal mTORC1 signaling, and provides insights into the molecular basis of LSD-related pathologies.

cell biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Versatile workflow for cell type resolved transcriptional and epigenetic profiles from cryopreserved human lung.

The complexity of the lung microenvironment together with changes in cellular composition during disease progression make it exceptionally hard to understand the molecular mechanisms leading to the development of chronic lung diseases. Although recent advances in cell type resolved and single-cell sequencing approaches hold great promise for studying complex diseases, their implementation greatly relies on local access to fresh tissue, as traditional methods to process and store tissue do not allow viable cell isolation. To overcome these hurdles, we developed a novel, versatile workflow that allows long-term storage of human lung tissue with high cell viability, permits thorough sample quality check before cell isolation, and is compatible with next generation sequencing-based profiling, including single-cell approaches. We demonstrate that cryopreservation is suitable for isolation of multiple cell types from different lung locations and is applicable to both healthy and diseased tissue, including COPD and tumor samples. Basal cells isolated from cryopreserved airways retain the ability to differentiate, indicating that cellular identity is not altered by cryopreservation. Importantly, using RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and Illumina EPIC Array, we show that genome-wide gene expression and DNA methylation signatures are preserved upon cryopreservation, emphasizing the suitability of our workflow for -omics profiling of human lung cells. In addition, we obtained high-quality single-cell RNA sequencing data of cells isolated from cryopreserved human lung, demonstrating that cryopreservation empowers single-cell approaches. Overall, thanks to its simplicity, our cryopreservation workflow is well-suited for prospective tissue collection by academic collaborators and biobanks, opening worldwide access to human tissue.

cell biology↗