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© The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525/2002/11/536 $5.00
The Journal of Cell Biology, Volume 159, Number 4, 536-536

Suicide attempt linked to breakdown

A COOH-terminal fragment (right) but not full-length (left) p115 induces apoptosis.

The Golgi apparatus breaks down temporarily to segregate into daughter cells during mitosis, but during apoptosis the organelle fragments irreversibly. On page 637, Chiu et al. report that cleavage of a critical tethering protein during apoptosis not only drives the fragmentation of the Golgi apparatus, but also appears to help propagate the apoptotic signal. The work adds to mounting evidence that the Golgi apparatus is a perpetrator as well as a victim of apoptosis.

The authors found that the tethering protein p115, which is essential for maintaining normal Golgi apparatus architecture, is selectively cleaved during apoptosis. The apoptotic proteases caspase-3 and caspase-8 cleave the protein in vitro, and a stable cell line expressing a cleavage-resistant form of p115 exhibits a delay in Golgi fragmentation during apoptosis. Expressing the COOH-terminal cleavage fragment of p115 in cells is sufficient to induce fragmentation, and, surprisingly, this fragment also translocates to the nucleus, where it induces apoptosis. The data suggest that the p115 COOH-terminal fragment serves two functions during apoptosis, both disrupting the Golgi apparatus as a dominant–negative inhibitor of p115, and sending a signal to the nucleus to induce other apoptotic processes.

Alan W. Dove

alanwdove{at}earthlink.net

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Related Article

A caspase cleavage fragment of p115 induces fragmentation of the Golgi apparatus and apoptosis

Raymond Chiu, Leonid Novikov, Shaeri Mukherjee, and Dennis Shields
J. Cell Biol. 2002 159: 637-648. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This Article Full Text (PDF, 672K) PPT slides of all figures Alert me when this article is cited Services Email this article Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new content in the JCB Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Dove, A. W. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Dove, A. W. Related Collections Related Article Social Bookmarking                            What's this?