Subcellular proteomics of Paramecium tetraurelia reveals mosaic localization of glycolysis and gluconeogenesis

Abstract

Ciliates are unicellular heterotrophic eukaryotes, most of which consume other microbes as prey. They exhibit nuclear dimorphism which requires reconstruction of a transcriptionally active macronucleus from the germline micronucleus after sexual recombination. This complex genomic structure has prevented the development of highly tractable genetic models leaving much of ciliate cell biology unexplored. To complicate matters further, some ciliates tend to accumulate many gene duplicates either singly or via whole genome duplications. Thus, extensive insight into the cell biology of ciliates requires the use of high-throughput tools like subcellular proteomics. Here, we use a subcellular proteomics workflow to classify over 9,000 proteins to 16 subcellular compartments in Paramecium tetraurelia. From these data, we identify a small but robust subcellular cluster containing canonical mitochondrial outer membrane proteins as well as some ER proteins, putatively at membrane contact sites. Within this cluster, we identified the important glycolytic enzyme phosphofructokinase, which contained a transmembrane domain. Further investigation revealed that several latter-acting glycolytic enzymes were localized to the mitochondrial cluster. The location of phosphoenol pyruvate carboxykinase and pyruvate carboxylase in the mitochondria but pyruvate kinase in the cytosol suggests that ciliates prefer gluconeogenesis over glycolysis. The localization of these enzymes was confirmed in a preliminary subcellular proteome of Tetrahymena thermophila. In sum, our findings suggest that mitochondrial localization of glycolytic/gluconeogenic enzymes is widespread across ciliates and that several may preferentially undergo gluconeogenesis over glycolysis using amino acids as a primary carbon source in both catabolic and anabolic metabolism. HighlightsSubcellular proteomics of Paramecium tetraurelia revealed that glycolytic and gluconeogenic enzymes are mosaically distributed between the cytosol, mitochondrial matrix, and mitochondrial outer membrane. A distinct mitochondrial outer membrane compartment was identified with 105 classified proteins, including core mitochondrial biogenesis proteins and a putative Tom70-like protein. Phosphofructokinase, a key glycolytic enzyme, was found embedded in the mitochondrial outer membrane. Localization of biochemical pathways suggest ciliates favor gluconeogenesis over glycolysis. In total, over 9000 Paramecium proteins were identified using subcellular proteomics and classified into 16 different cellular compartments.