Burstein, Ezra

Abstract The recycling of membrane proteins from endosomes to the cell surface is vital for cell signaling and survival. Retriever, a trimeric complex of VPS35L, VPS26C and VPS29, together with the CCC complex comprising CCDC22, CCDC93, and COMMD proteins, plays a crucial role in this process. The precise mechanisms underlying Retriever assembly and its interaction with CCC have remained elusive. Here, we present the first high-resolution structure of Retriever determined using cryogenic electron microscopy. The structure reveals a unique assembly mechanism, distinguishing it from its remotely related paralog, Retromer. By combining AlphaFold predictions and biochemical, cellular, and proteomic analyses, we further elucidate the structural organization of the entire Retriever-CCC complex and uncover how cancer-associated mutations disrupt complex formation and impair membrane protein homeostasis. These findings provide a fundamental framework for understanding the biological and pathological implications associated with Retriever-CCC-mediated endosomal recycling.

Cell surface receptors control how cells respond to their environment. Many cell surface receptors recycle from endosomes to the plasma membrane via a recently discovered pathway, which includes sorting-nexin SNX17, Retriever, WASH, and CCC complexes. Here, using mammalian cells, we discover that PIKfyve and its upstream PI3-kinase VPS34 positively regulate this pathway. VPS34 produces phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate (PI3P), which is the substrate for PIKfyve to generate PI3,5P 2 . We show that PIKfyve controls recycling of cargoes including integrins, receptors that control cell migration. Furthermore, endogenous PIKfyve colocalizes with SNX17, Retriever, WASH, and CCC complexes on endosomes. Importantly, PIKfyve inhibition results in displacement of Retriever and CCC from endosomes. In addition, we show that recruitment of SNX17 is an early step and requires VPS34. These discoveries suggest that VPS34 and PIKfyve coordinate an ordered pathway to regulate recycling from endosomes and suggest how PIKfyve functions in cell migration.

ABSTRACT Copper is an essential transition metal for all eukaryotes. In mammals, intestinal copper absorption is mediated by the ATP7A copper transporter, whereas copper excretion occurs predominantly through the biliary route and is mediated by the paralog ATP7B. Both transporters have been shown to be recycled actively between the endosomal network and the plasma membrane by a molecular machinery known as the COMMD/CCDC22/CCDC93 or CCC complex. In fact, mutations in COMMD1 can lead to impaired biliary copper excretion and liver pathology in dogs and in mice with liver-specific Commd1 deficiency, recapitulating aspects of this phenotype. Nonetheless, the role of the CCC complex in intestinal copper absorption in vivo has not been studied, and the potential redundancy of various COMMD family members has not been tested. In this study, we examined copper homeostasis in enterocyte-specific and hepatocyte-specific COMMD gene-deficient mice. We found that, in contrast to effects in cell lines in culture, COMMD protein deficiency induced minimal changes in ATP7A in enterocytes and did not lead to altered copper levels under low- or high-copper diets, suggesting that regulation of ATP7A in enterocytes is not of physiological consequence. By contrast, deficiency of any of three COMMD genes (Commd1, Commd6 or Commd9) resulted in hepatic copper accumulation under high-copper diets. We found that each of these deficiencies caused destabilization of the entire CCC complex and suggest that this might explain their shared phenotype. Overall, we conclude that the CCC complex plays an important role in ATP7B endosomal recycling and function.

COMMD1 deficiency results in defective copper homeostasis, but the mechanism for this has remained elusive. Here we report that COMMD1 is directly linked to early endosomes through its interaction with a protein complex containing CCDC22, CCDC93, and C16orf62. This COMMD/CCDC22/CCDC93 (CCC) complex interacts with the multisubunit WASH complex, an evolutionarily conserved system, which is required for endosomal deposition of F-actin and cargo trafficking in conjunction with the retromer. Interactions between the WASH complex subunit FAM21, and the carboxyl-terminal ends of CCDC22 and CCDC93 are responsible for CCC complex recruitment to endosomes. We show that depletion of CCC complex components leads to lack of copper-dependent movement of the copper transporter ATP7A from endosomes, resulting in intracellular copper accumulation and modest alterations in copper homeostasis in humans with CCDC22 mutations. This work provides a mechanistic explanation for the role of COMMD1 in copper homeostasis and uncovers additional genes involved in the regulation of copper transporter recycling.