Participation of a fusogenic protein, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, in nuclear membrane assembly

We found an autoimmune serum, K199, that strongly suppresses nuclear membrane assembly in a cell-free system involving a Xenopus egg extract. Four different antibodies that suppress nuclear assembly were affinity-purified from the serum using Xenopus egg cytosol proteins. Three proteins recognized by these antibodies were identified by partial amino acid sequencing to be glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase, and the regulator of chromatin condensation 1. GAPDH is known to be a fusogenic protein. To verify the participation of GAPDH in nuclear membrane fusion, authentic antibodies against human and rat GAPDH were applied, and strong suppression of nuclear assembly at the nuclear membrane fusion step was observed. The nuclear assembly activity suppressed by antibodies was recovered on the addition of purified chicken GAPDH. A peptide with the sequence of amino acid residues 70-94 of GAPDH, which inhibits GAPDH-induced phospholipid vesicle fusion, inhibited nuclear assembly at the nuclear membrane fusion step. We propose that GAPDH plays a crucial role in the membrane fusion step in nuclear assembly in a Xenopus egg extract cell-free system.