Abstract

The enumeration of the interaction partners of the cellular prion protein, PrP(C), may help clarifying its elusive molecular function. Here we added a carboxy proximal myc epitope tag to PrP(C). When expressed in transgenic mice, PrP(myc) carried a GPI anchor, was targeted to lipid rafts, and was glycosylated similarly to PrP(C). PrP(myc) antagonized the toxicity of truncated PrP, restored prion infectibility of PrP(C)-deficient mice, and was physically incorporated into PrP(Sc) aggregates, indicating that it possessed all functional characteristics of genuine PrP(C). We then immunopurified myc epitope-containing protein complexes from PrP(myc) transgenic mouse brains. Gentle differential elution with epitope-mimetic decapeptides, or a scrambled version thereof, yielded 96 specifically released proteins. Quantitative mass spectrometry with isotope-coded tags identified seven proteins which co-eluted equimolarly with PrP(C) and may represent component of a multiprotein complex. Selected PrP(C) interactors were validated using independent methods. Several of these proteins appear to exert functions in axomyelinic maintenance.