In vivo interaction between the human dehydrodolichyl diphosphate synthase and the Niemann-Pick C2 protein revealed by a yeast two-hybrid system

Dehydrodolichyl diphosphate (DedolPP) synthase catalyzes the sequential condensation of isopentenyl diphosphate with farnesyl diphosphate to synthesize DedolPP, a biosynthetic precursor for dolichol which plays an important role as a sugar-carrier lipid in the biosynthesis of glycoprotein in eukaryotic cells. During certain pathological processes like Alzheimer's disease or some neurological disorders, dolichol has been shown to accumulate in human brain. In order to understand the regulatory mechanism of dolichol in eukaryotes, we performed a yeast two-hybrid screen using full length human DedolPP synthase gene [Endo et al. BBA 1625 (2003) 291] as a bait to find some proteins specifically interacting with the enzyme. We identified Niemann-Pick Type C2 protein (NPC2) to show a specific interaction with human DedolPP synthase. This interaction was further confirmed by in vitro co-immunoprecipitation experiment, indicating the possible physiological interaction between NPC2 and DedolPP synthase proteins in human.