Centrosomal P4.1-associated protein (CPAP) positively regulates endocytic vesicular transport and lysosome targeting of EGFR

Centrosomal P4.1-associated protein (CPAP) plays a critical role in restricting the centriole length in human cells. Here, we report a novel, positive regulatory influence for CPAP on endocytic vesicular transport (EVT) and lysosome targeting of internalized-cell surface receptor EGFR. We observed that higher CPAP levels cause an increase in the abundance of multi-vesicular body (MVB) and EGFR is detectable in CPAP-overexpression induced puncta. The surface and cellular levels of EGFR are higher under CPAP deficiency and lower under CPAP overexpression. While ligand-engagement induced internalization or routing of EGFR into early endosomes is not influenced by cellular levels of CPAP, we found that targeting of ligand-activated, internalized EGFR to lysosome is impacted by CPAP levels. Transport of ligand-bound EGFR from early endosome to late endosome/MVB and lysosome is diminished in CPAP-depleted cells. Moreover, CPAP depleted cells appear to show a diminished ability to form MVB structures upon EGFR activation. These observations suggest a positive regulatory effect of CPAP on EVT of ligand-bound EGFR-like cell surface receptors to MVB and lysosome. Overall, identification of a non-centriolar function of CPAP in endocytic trafficking provides new insights in understanding the non-canonical cellular functions of CPAP.