Exciting discovery from Sarah Cohen (UNC-Chapel Hill) about the disease causing allele of ApoE: in astrocytes it affects the internal lipid stores (not just lipoprotein traffic to the outside). A portion remains in the cytoplasm & modulates LD formation, with E4 less cytoprotective.

There's a new paper from Marisa Brini and Calì_Lab (Padova Neuroscience Center) showing that lyosome-mitochondrial contact is required to channel Ca2+ and keep it low locally. High levels of alpha-synuclein inhibit this, leading to TFEB activation and aberrant signalling

Contact will be sponsoring the upcoming Yeast Lipid Conference LST @ Saarland University, Homburg, Germany. If you need more info, contact the organisers Robert Ernst and Mike Renne (yeastlipidconference.com or email [email protected]). Early registration discounts (10-25%) for the next 9 days.

Now Maria Bohnert & team (Muenster) show LDO proteins (yeast homologs of promethin) are the lipid droplet components of the bridge to the vacuole They also show Ldo45 (not Ldo16) binds the lanosterol/PI transfer protein Pdr16 (=Sfh3) + see parallel paper:cell.com/developmental-…

The team of Gerry Hammond (Pittsburgh) answer a controversy about whether OSBP has dominant effects on levels of Golgi PI4P. Answer: Yes! journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11… This suggests that beyond a role in sterol forward traffic, OSBP regulates other Golgi PI4P-dependent functions.

Chris Miller's team (King's, London 1st author Andrea Markovinovic) show that Ca2+ & synaptic defects resulting from aberrant TDP43, as found in FTD/ALS, can be rescued by stimulating VAPB-PTPIP51 ER-mitochondria bridging complexes. e.g. by inhibiting GSK3b ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

Hey, everybody. Come to this great conference on ALL matters contact-site-ish: run by Biochemical Society Great speakers from Europe and beyond. Put the date September 23-25 2024 in your diary And register online at bit.ly/Membrane24. 🙏retwt

We have a new, comprehensive review from Daniel Lévy and Dezi Manuela (Institut Curie) on Cryo-Electron Microscopy of Membrane Contact Sites. Multiple powerful techniques are only applied by a few groups currently. The review aims to widen appreciation to increase uptake.

The team of Yang Zhang (Chengdu) have created a database of membrane contact sites - 44 of them! - with more than 600 low-throughput MCS proteins, as well as many more documented in high-throughput experiments - either by proximity ligation or mass spec. nature.com/articles/s4159…

We have 10 articles in a Special Collection on VPS13 and Bridge-Like Lipid Transfer Proteins: six original research and four reviews. Read our Editorial to find out more about them and to access them one by one. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/25…

There's a new paper from the Olof Idevall-Hagren group (Uppsala) who show that insulin granules form contacts with the ER where OSBP is recruited (Ca2+ and pH- dependent) to exchange granule PI(4)P for ER cholesterol, hence allowing normal insulin secretion.

New work from the Imperi group #Roma3 study phospholipid traffic in Pseudomonas. Four out of the seven AsmA homologs (tamB, yhdP, ydbH, PA4735) are redundantly essential (at least one is required). There is rescue by lower LPS delivery, showing balance between the 2 OM leaflets.

The group of Natividad Ruiz Ohio State have further mapped the role of RBG proteins in bacterial lipid traffic An RBG protein too short to cross the periplasm functions only when a protein in the same operon augments the b-structure to complete the bridge pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

The team of Lackner Lab at Northwestern University have shown that 3 way mitochondria/plasma membrane/ER contacts in yeast need the tether Num1 to bind VAP. Their outputs include regulating PI4P at the PM and mitochondrial division. The team offer lots of ideas for future work.

New article out in Contact - a mini-review with the "news"* about Spartin *almost 5 months old

The Meyer lab Weill Cornell Medicine show ER-PM contacts are involved in cell migration. Contacts are static in relation to cell matrix, so as a cell moves contacts go to the back. They turn off EGFR signals via PTP1B, propelling cells forward. See paper for details on contact asymmetry.

The membrane contact site meeting in Edinburgh is coming up soon: Sept 23-25 And the deadline for abstracts is less than 2 weeks away: July 23 Since we have lots of slots for oral communications, get your abstract in now. Early bird discount same date bit.ly/Membrane24

Deadlines for abstracts and early-bird registration have been extended until 31 July 2024.... There are still 5 days left: eventsforce.net/biochemsoc/fro… ...see how the two halves of the hourglass are making a contact site?

We have a new review out from Tadashi Makio & Thomas Simmen UAlberta Med & Dent Not So Rare: Diseases Based on Mutant Proteins Controlling Endoplasmic ReticulumMitochondria Contact (MERC) Tethering journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11… Common features of rare diseases may help lead to treatments

We have 2 new articles out: Vesa Olkkonen University of Helsinki & Elina Ikonen IkonenLab have written a perspective reviewing the Oxysterol Binding Protein family journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11… Wei-Ke Ji (Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan) and colleagues have reviewed SMP proteins journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…