Arv1 Regulates PM and ER Membrane Structure and Homeostasis But is Dispensable for Intracellular Sterol Transport

The pan-eukaryotic endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane protein Arv1 has been suggested to play a role in intracellular sterol transport. We tested this proposal by comparing sterol traffic in wild-type and Arv1-deficient Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We used fluorescence microscopy to track the retrograde movement of exogenously supplied dehydroergosterol (DHE) from the plasma membrane (PM) to the ER and lipid droplets and high performance liquid chromatography to quantify, in parallel, the transport-coupled formation of DHE esters. Metabolic labeling and subcellular fractionation were used to assay anterograde transport of ergosterol from the ER to the PM. We report that sterol transport between the ER and PM is unaffected by Arv1 deficiency. Instead, our results indicate differences in ER morphology and the organization of the PM lipid bilayer between wild-type and arv1Δ cells suggesting a distinct role for Arv1 in membrane homeostasis. In arv1Δ cells, specific defects affecting single C-terminal transmembrane domain proteins suggest that Arv1 might regulate membrane insertion of tail-anchored proteins involved in membrane homoeostasis.