4 ± 0.2; Table 1). Similar results were obtained with DIV7 neurons transfected with TfR-yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) constructs (see Figures S1A and S1B available online). In contrast, mutation of two other phenylalanine residues, F9 or F13 (Figure 1A), had no effect on the somatodendritic localization of TfR-YFP (Figures S1A and S1B). We also noticed that whereas wild-type TfR-GFP or TfR-YFP displayed punctate staining in the cytoplasm

of dendrites and soma, the corresponding Y20A mutants showed diffuse staining throughout the cell, including the axon (Figures 1B and 1C; Figures S2A–S2C). The punctate structures containing wild-type TfR-YFP were identified as endosomes by colocalization with internalized antibody to GFP (which recognizes the YFP tag) (Figures S2A and S2B). The diffuse staining of the selleck chemicals R428 in vitro TfR-YFP Y20A mutant, on the other hand, corresponded to the cell surface, as demonstrated by labeling of nonpermeabilized cells at 0°C with the

same antibody to GFP (Figure S2C). This change in surface staining is consistent with the known role of Y20 as an element of the YTRF endocytic signal (Collawn et al., 1990). From these experiments, we concluded that Y20 and F23 in the TfR tail are components of a somatodendritic sorting signal that overlaps with the YTRF endocytic signal. We extended our analyses to the type I integral membrane protein, CAR, a cell adhesion molecule that is highly expressed in the developing central nervous system. CAR localizes to the basolateral surface of polarized epithelial cells (Walters et al., 1999; Diaz et al., 2009) by virtue of a cytosolic YXXØ signal, YNQV (residues ADP ribosylation factor 318–321) (Figure S3A) (Cohen et al., 2001; Carvajal-Gonzalez et al., 2012). We observed that whereas a CAR-GFP construct was restricted to the somatodendritic domain (polarity index: 8.1 ± 1.1), mutants

having an alanine substitution for Y318 or V321 appeared in the axon (polarity index: 1.1 ± 0.2 and 1.2 ± 0.2, respectively) (Figures S3B and S3C). Taken together, these experiments demonstrated that tyrosine-based signals fitting the YXXØ consensus motif mediate somatodendritic sorting of two transmembrane cargoes, TfR and CAR, in hippocampal neurons. Since the epithelial-specific μ1B subunit isoform of AP-1 mediates basolateral sorting in epithelial cells (Fölsch et al., 1999; Gan et al., 2002), we hypothesized that the ubiquitous μ1A—the only μ1 isoform that is expressed in the brain (Ohno et al., 1999)—might be responsible for sorting to the somatodendritic domain of neurons. Consistent with this notion, we recently found that μ1A binds to the cytosolic tails of TfR (Gravotta et al., 2012) and CAR (Carvajal-Gonzalez et al., 2012). Further analyses using yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) and in vitro binding assays showed that interactions with μ1A require Y20 and F23, but not F9 and F13, in the TfR cytosolic tail (Figures S1C–S1E) and Y318 and V321 in the CAR cytosolic tail (Figure S3D) (Carvajal-Gonzalez et al., 2012).