Publications by authors named "Thomas P Curtin"
As early endosomes mature, the SAND-1/CCZ-1 complex acts as a guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) for RAB-7 to promote the activity of its effector, HOPS, which facilitates late endosome-lysosome fusion and the consumption of AP-3-containing vesicles. We show that CCZ-1 and the HOPS complex are essential for the biogenesis of gut granules, cell type-specific, lysosome-related organelles (LROs) that coexist with conventional lysosomes in Caenorhabditis elegans intestinal cells. The HOPS subunit VPS-18 promotes the trafficking of gut granule proteins away from lysosomes and functions downstream of or in parallel to the AP-3 adaptor.
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- Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome is a human disease linked to defective lysosome-related organelles (LROs) caused by mutations in the BLOC-1 complex, which includes proteins like Pallidin and Snapin.
- Research shows that the C. elegans genes glo-2 and snpn-1 encode homologues of these BLOC-1 subunits, with their functions being conserved, as mutations in these genes led to issues in gut granule formation.
- The study suggests that the BLOC-1 complex in C. elegans retains functions that are independent of the AP-3 complex and highlights the potential for using C. elegans to further explore the role of BLOC-1 in cellular processes.