A comparative study of human GS2, its paralogues, and its rat orthologue

We have previously shown that human GS2 (hGS2) catalyzes keratinocyte retinylester and triglyceride hydrolysis. hGS2 and its rat orthologue, rGS2, are 80% homologous and share a proline insertion at residue 56 and a C-terminal truncation compared to the hGS2 paralogues. Both changes are required for hGS2 function. However, the catalytic capabilities of hGS2 are more similar to the paralogue, TTS-2.2, than to rGS2. Only hGS2 and hTTS-2.2 transfer fatty acid from triglyceride to retinol, hydrolyze retinylesters, and generate 1,3-diacylglycerol from triglycerides. Rat–human chimeras containing either the N- or C-terminus of rGS2 are without activity and single substitutions of rat for human residues cause activity loss. The differences between orthologues suggest that GS2 has a unique function in humans or has a function that is fulfilled by other enzymes in rodents. Since retinoid and triglyceride metabolites are transcription factor ligands, we expect that these enzymes will coordinately regulate epidermal homeostasis.