Oral Presentation The 47th Lorne Conference on Protein Structure and Function 2022

Early Endosomal Acrobatics (EEA) of EEA1 drives an emergent time-keeping in endosomal maturations (#3)

Senthil Arumugam 1
  1. Monash Biomedical Discovery Institute. , EMBL Australia, Monash University, Clayton, Vic, Australia

Endosomal maturation is a major process in endosomal trafficking in which endosomes shed one specific protein and acquire another, resulting in an identity change. Individual processes that build up endosomal trafficking, including conversions, are interlinked and are inherently stochastic. While the general biochemical interactions have been well described, how all the events come together to overcome the inherent noise and stochasticity is much less explored.  Here, capitalising on the rapid volumetric imaging capability of Lattice-light sheet, we capture whole-cell volumes, enabling post-acquisition analysis of all conversion and their dynamic characteristics. We show that early endosome maturation is driven by endosomal collision-induced conversions. Using live-cell Förster Resonance Energy Transfer, we demonstrate that this is underpinned by cyclical conformational changes in EEA1, which promotes the biochemical maturation of these vesicles through its asymmetric binding capacity and clustering on the endosomal membranes. Using simulations, we recapture the experimentally observed characteristics in the reaction scheme and the activity of EEA1. Taken together, we describe an EEA1 based feed-forward mechanism that enables deterministic outcomes in ensemble endosomal conversions in an otherwise stochastic system.