Different sensitivity to wortmannin of two vacuolar sorting signals indicates the presence of distinct sorting machineries in tobacco cells.

Vacuolar matrix proteins in plant cells are sorted from the secretory pathway to the vacuoles at the Golgi apparatus. Previously, we reported that the NH2-terminal propeptide (NTPP) of the sporamin precursor and the COOH-terminal propeptide (CTPP) of the barley lectin precursor contain information for vacuolar sorting. To analyze whether these propeptides are interchangeable, we expressed constructs consisting of wild-type or mutated NTPP with the mature part of barley lectin and sporamin with CTPP and mutated NTPP in tobacco BY-2 cells. The vacuolar localization of these constructs indicated that the signals were interchangeable. We next analyzed the effect of wortmannin, a specific inhibitor of mammalian phosphatidylinositol (PI) 3-kinase on vacuolar delivery by NTPP and CTPP in tobacco cells. Pulse-chase analysis indicated that 33 microM wortmannin caused almost complete inhibition of CTPP-mediated transport to the vacuoles, while NTPP-mediated transport displayed almost no sensitivity to wortmannin at this concentration. This indicates that there are at least two different mechanisms for vacuolar sorting in tobacco cells, and the CTPP-mediated pathway is sensitive to wortmannin. We compared the dose dependencies of wortmannin on the inhibition of CTPP-mediated vacuolar delivery of proteins and on the inhibition of the synthesis of phospholipids in tobacco cells. Wortmannin inhibited PI 3- and PI 4-kinase activities and phospholipid synthesis. Missorting caused by wortmannin displays a dose dependency that is similar to the dose dependency for the inhibition of synthesis of PI 4-phosphate and major phospholipids. This is different, however, than the inhibition of synthesis of PI 3-phosphate. Thus, the synthesis of phospholipids could be involved in CTPP-mediated vacuolar transport.