Variation in the Subcellular Localization and Protein Folding Activity among Arabidopsis thaliana Homologs of Protein Disulfide Isomerase

Protein disulfide isomerases (PDIs) catalyze the formation, breakage, and rearrangement of disulfide bonds to properly fold nascent polypeptides within the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Classical animal and yeast PDIs possess two catalytic thioredoxin-like domains (a, a′) and two non-catalytic domains (b, b′), in the order a-b-b′-a′. The model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana, encodes 12 PDI-like proteins, six of which possess the classical PDI domain arrangement (AtPDI1 through AtPDI6). Three additional AtPDIs (AtPDI9, AtPDI10, AtPDI11) possess two thioredoxin domains, but without intervening b-b′ domains. C-terminal green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusions to each of the nine dual-thioredoxin PDI homologs localized predominantly to the ER lumen when transiently expressed in protoplasts. Additionally, expression of AtPDI9:GFP-KDEL and AtPDI10: GFP-KDDL was associated with the formation of ER bodies. AtPDI9, AtPDI10, and AtPDI11 mediated the oxidative folding of alkaline phosphatase when heterologously expressed in the Escherichia coli protein folding mutant, dsbA(−). However, only three classical AtPDIs (AtPDI2, AtPDI5, AtPDI6) functionally complemented dsbA(−). Interestingly, chemical inducers of the ER unfolded protein response were previously shown to upregulate most of the AtPDIs that complemented dsbA(−). The results indicate that Arabidopsis PDIs differ in their localization and protein folding activities to fulfill distinct molecular functions in the ER.