Remodeling of yeast vacuole membrane lipidomes from the log (1-phase) to stationary stage (2-phases)

Abstract

Upon nutrient limitation, budding yeast of Saccharomyces cerevisiae shift from fast growth (the log stage) to quiescence (the stationary stage). This shift is accompanied by liquid-liquid phase separation in the membrane of the vacuole, an endosomal organelle. Recent work indicates that the resulting micron-scale domains in vacuole membranes enable yeast to survive periods of stress. An outstanding question is which molecular changes might cause this membrane phase separation. Here, we conduct lipidomics of vacuole membranes in both the log and stationary stages. Isolation of pure vacuole membranes is challenging in the stationary stage, when lipid droplets are in close contact with vacuoles. Immuno-isolation has previously been shown to successfully purify log-stage vacuole membranes with high organelle specificity, but it was not previously possible to immuno-isolate stationary stage vacuole membranes. Here, we develop Mam3 as a bait protein for vacuole immuno-isolation, and demonstrate low contamination by non-vacuolar membranes. We find that stationary stage vacuole membranes contain surprisingly high fractions of phosphatidylcholine lipids ([~]50%), roughly twice as much as log-stage membranes. Moreover, in the stationary stage these lipids have higher melting temperatures, due to longer and more saturated acyl chains. Another surprise is that no significant change in sterol content is observed. These results fit within the predominant view that phase separation in membranes requires at least three types of molecules to be present: lipids with high melting temperatures, lipids with low melting temperatures, and sterols. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTWhen budding yeast shift from growth to quiescence, the membrane of one of their organelles (the vacuole) undergoes liquid-liquid phase separation. What changes in the membranes lipids cause this phase transition? Here, we conduct lipidomics of immuno-isolated vacuole membranes. We analyze our data in the context of lipid melting temperatures, inspired by observations that liquid-liquid phase separation in model membranes requires a mixture of lipids with high melting temperatures, lipids with low melting temperatures, and sterols. We find that phase-separated vacuole membranes have higher concentrations of PC lipids, and that those lipids have higher melting temperatures. To conduct our experiments, we developed a tagged version of a protein (Mam3) for immuno-isolation of vacuole membranes.