PMID: 7544797May 1, 1995Paper

Identification of three distinct peroxisomal protein import defects in patients with peroxisome biogenesis disorders

Journal of Cell Science
M L SlaweckiS J Gould

Abstract

Zellweger syndrome, neonatal adrenoleukodystrophy, infantile Refsum's disease, and classical rhizomelic chondrodysplasia punctata are lethal genetic disorders caused by defects in peroxisome biogenesis. We report here a characterization of the peroxisomal matrix protein import capabilities of fibroblasts from 62 of these peroxisome biogenesis disorder patients representing all ten known complementation groups. Using an immunofluorescence microscopy assay, we identified three distinct peroxisomal protein import defects among these patients. Type-1 cells have a specific inability to import proteins containing the PTS1 peroxisomal targeting signal, type-2 cells have a specific defect in import of proteins containing the PTS2 signal, and type-3 cells exhibit a loss of, or reduction in, the import of both PTS1 and PTS2 proteins. Considering that the common cellular phenotype of Zellweger syndrome, neonatal adrenoleukodystrophy and infantile Refsum's disease has been proposed to be a complete defect in peroxisomal matrix protein import, the observation that 85% (40/47) of the type-3 cell lines imported a low but detectable amount of both PTS1 and PTS2 proteins was surprising. Furthermore, different cell lines with the type-3 defect e...Continue Reading

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