Alteration of clathrin light chain expression by transfection and gene disruption

The light chain subunits of clathrin, LCa and LCb, have been implicated in the regulation of coated vesicle disassembly and other aspects of clathrin cycling within the cell. The potential for functional specialization of each light chain is suggested by tissue-specific variation in the relative amounts of the two light chains and by conservation of differences between LCa and LCb sequences during evolution. To investigate whether there might be exclusive roles for LCa and LCb in clathrin function, the expression of LCa was manipulated in C1R lymphoid cells and PC12 pheochromocytoma cells by transfection with light chain cDNA. These two cell lines differ in their ratios of LCa to LCb, expressing 86 and 25% LCa, respectively. After transfection with exogenous human LCa cDNA, a PC12 cell derivative was produced that completely lost the ability to manufacture LCa. Loss of LCa expression was found to be because of gene disruption and consequent lack of mRNA transcription. In C1R cells, the normally high level of LCa expression was reduced to 25% by overexpression of transfected LCb cDNA under the control of an inducible promoter. The C1R transfectants with reduced levels of LCa and the LCa-negative PC12 transfectant grow normally and show no change in clathrin distribution, clathrin assembly level, or impairment of endocytosis or secretion compared with wild-type cells and cells transfected with vectors lacking light chain cDNA. However, subtle alterations in the hsc70-mediated clathrin uncoating process were observed for vesicles derived from the LCa-negative cells, reflecting the preferential activity of LCa in stimulating the in vitro uncoating reaction.