Vesicle-associated membrane protein-associated protein (VAP) is an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-resident integral membrane protein that controls a nonvesicular mode of ceramide and cholesterol transfer from the ER to the Golgi complex by interacting with ceramide transfer protein and oxysterol-binding protein (OSBP), respectively. We report that VAP and its interacting proteins are required for the processing and secretion of pancreatic adenocarcinoma up-regulated factor, whose transport from the trans-Golgi network (TGN) to the cell surface is mediated by transport carriers called "carriers of the trans-Golgi network to the cell surface" (CARTS). In VAP-depleted cells, diacylglycerol level at the TGN was decreased and CARTS formation was impaired. We found that VAP forms a complex with not only OSBP but also Sac1 phosphoinositide phosphatase at specialized ER subdomains that are closely apposed to the trans-Golgi/TGN, most likely reflecting membrane contact sites. Immobilization of ER-Golgi contacts dramatically reduced CARTS production, indicating that association-dissociation dynamics of the two membranes are important. On the basis of these findings, we propose that the ER-Golgi contacts play a pivotal role in lipid metabolism to control the biogenesis of transport carriers from the TGN.
© 2015 Wakana et al. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). Two months after publication it is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).