Dr. Yusong Guo obtained his PhD in Cell Biology, working in Prof. Adam Linstedt’s laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University. Then he performed his postdoctoral research in Prof. Randy Schekman’s lab at UC Berkeley. Dr. Guo is currently an Assistant Professor at the Division of Life Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Research Question

Molecular mechanism that regulates sorting of planar cell polarity signaling receptors at the trans Golgi network

Many epithelial tissues not only exhibit an apical-basolateral polarity but also acquire a second axis of polarity perpendicular to the apical-basal axis, referred to as planar cell polarity (PCP). Defects in PCP signaling are associated with a variety of human diseases including cancer metastasis and congenital heart disease. The establishment of PCP is controlled by a group of conserved signaling receptors that are localized asymmetrically on opposing cellular boundaries. This asymmetric localization is critical for accurate propagation of the PCP signaling process. We are interested in understanding how PCP signaling receptors are delivered to the plasma membrane as well as how their asymmetric localizations are established.

The trans Golgi network (TGN) is an essential transport hub in the biosynthetic transport pathway. At the TGN, elaborate cargo sorting machineries function to sort newly-synthesized proteins into distinct transport vesicles that are delivered to various downstream destinations. TGN sorting is an important step for accurate targeting of various proteins to their specific localizations. We aim to identify the molecular machineries that mediate sorting of the asymmetrically localized PCP signaling receptors into vesicles at the TGN utilizing cutting edge technologies in biochemistry, cell biology and fluorescent imaging. We also aim to analyze whether protein sorting at the TGN is important for establishing the asymmetric localizations of PCP signaling receptors as well as for the propagation of the PCP signaling process.

Representative Publications

1. Tang X, Zhang L, Ma T, Wang M, Li B, Jiang L, Yan Y, Guo Y*. Molecular mechanisms that regulate export of the planar cell-polarity protein Frizzled-6 out of the endoplasmic reticulum. Journal of Biological Chemistry. (accepted)
2. Huang Y#, Ma T#, Lau PK#, Wang J, Zhao T, Du S, Loy MMT, Guo Y*. Visualization of protein sorting at the trans-Golgi network and endosomes through super-resolution imaging. Frontier in Cell and Developmental Biology. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2019 Sep 3;7:181.
3. Niu L#, Ma T#, Yang F, Yan B, Tang X, Yin H, Wu Q, Huang Y, Yao ZP, Wang J, Guo Y*, Hu J*. 2019. Atlastin-mediated membrane tethering is critical for cargo mobility and exit from the endoplasmic reticulum. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 116:14029-14038. (# Contributed equally, * corresponding authors, underlined authors are from the Guo lab)
4. Mao Y#, Tu R#, Huang Y#, Mao D, Yang Z, Lau PK, Wang J, Ni J*, Guo Y*, Xie T*. 2019. The exocyst functions in niche cells to promote germline stem cell differentiation by directly controlling EGFR membrane trafficking. Development. 146. (# Contributed equally, * corresponding authors, underlined authors are from the Guo lab)
5. Ma T, Li B, Wang R, Lau PK, Huang Y, Jiang L, Schekman R, Guo Y*. A mechanism for differential sorting of planar cell polarity proteins Frizzled6 and Vangl2 at the trans-Golgi Network. Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2018 Jun 1; 293(22): 8410-8427.