Dystroglycan protein distribution coincides with basement membranes and muscle differentiation during mouse embryogenesis.

Using immunohistochemistry, we have examined beta-Dystroglycan protein distribution in the mouse embryo at embryonic stages E9.5 to E11.5. Our data show that Dystroglycan expression correlates with basement membranes in many tissues, such as the notochord, neural tube, promesonephros, and myotome. In the myotome, we describe the timing of Dystroglycan protein re-distribution at the surface of myogenic precursor cells as basement membrane assembles into a continuous sheet. We also report on non-basement-membrane-associated Dystroglycan expression in the floor plate and the myocardium. This distribution often corresponds to sites of expression previously reported in adults, suggesting that Dystroglycan is continuously produced during development.

Phenotypic responses to mechanical stress in fibroblasts from tendon, cornea and skin.

Primary fibroblasts isolated from foetal mouse cornea, skin and tendon were subjected to linear shear stress and analysed for morphological parameters and by microarray, as compared with unstimulated controls. Approx. 350 genes were either up- or down-regulated by a significant amount, with 51 of these being common to all three cell types. Approx. 50% of altered genes in tendon and cornea fibroblasts were changed in common with one of the other cell types, with the remaining approx. 50% being specific to tendon or cornea. In skin fibroblasts, however, less than 25% of genes whose transcription was altered were specific only to skin. The functional spectrum of genes that were up- or down-regulated was diverse, with apparent house-keeping genes forming the major category of up-regulated genes. However, a significant number of genes associated with cell adhesion, extracellular matrix and matrix remodelling, as well as cytokines and other signalling factors, were also affected. Somewhat surprisingly, in these latter categories the trend was towards a reduction in mRNA levels. Verification of the mRNA quantity of a subset of these genes was performed by reverse transcriptase PCR and was found to be in agreement with the microarray analysis. These findings provide the first in-depth analysis of phenotypic differences between fibroblast cells from different tissue sources and reveal the responses of these cells to mechanical stress.

Filopodia formation and Disabled degradation downstream of Reelin.

During Drosophila embryogenesis, Abl (Abelson tyrosine kinase) is localized in the axons of the CNS (central nervous system). Mutations in Abl have a subtle effect on the morphology of the embryonic CNS, and the mutant animals survive to the pupal and adult stages. However, genetic screens have identified several genes that, when mutated along with the Abl gene, modified the phenotypes. Two prominent genes that arose from these screens were enabled (Ena) and disabled (Dab). It has been known for some time that Enabled and its mammalian homologues are involved in the regulation of actin dynamics, and promote actin polymerization at the leading edge of motile cells. It was a defect in actin polymerization in migrating neurons in particular that resulted in the identification of Enabled as an important regulator of neuronal migration. Defects in Disabled, in both Drosophila and mammals, also gave rise to neuronal defects which, in mice, were indistinguishable from phenotypes observed in the reeler mouse. These observations suggested that mDab1 (mammalian Disabled homologue 1) acted in a pathway downstream of Reelin, the product of the reelin gene found to be defective in reeler mice. Now, in this issue of the Biochemical Journal, Takenawa and colleagues have demonstrated that Disabled also acts in a pathway to regulate actin dynamics through the direct activation of N-WASP (neuronal Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein). Furthermore, they were also able to link several lines of investigation from other groups to show that the ability of mDab1 to regulate actin dynamics during cell motility was under the negative control of tyrosine phosphorylation, leading to ubiquitin-mediated degradation of mDab1.

Dystroglycan, a scaffold for the ERK-MAP kinase cascade.

Dystroglycan is an important cell adhesion receptor linking the actin cytoskeleton, via utrophin and dystrophin, to laminin in the extracellular matrix. To identify adhesion-related signalling molecules associated with dystroglycan, we conducted a yeast two-hybrid screen and identified mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase kinase 2 (MEK2) as a beta-dystroglycan interactor. Pull-down experiments and localization studies substantiated a physiological link between beta-dystroglycan and MEK and localized MEK with dystroglycan in membrane ruffles. Moreover, we also identified active extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), the downstream kinase from MEK, as another interacting partner for beta-dystroglycan and localized both active ERK and dystroglycan to focal adhesions in fibroblast cells. These studies suggest a role for dystroglycan as a multifunctional adaptor or scaffold capable of interacting with components of the ERK-MAP kinase cascade including MEK and ERK. These findings have important implications for our understanding of the role of dystroglycan in normal cellular processes and in disease states such as muscular dystrophy.

A role for the actin cytoskeleton in cell death and aging in yeast.

Several determinants of aging, including metabolic capacity and genetic stability, are recognized in both yeast and humans. However, many aspects of the pathways leading to cell death remain to be elucidated. Here we report a role for the actin cytoskeleton both in cell death and in promoting longevity. We have analyzed yeast strains expressing mutants with either increased or decreased actin dynamics. We show that decreased actin dynamics causes depolarization of the mitochondrial membrane and an increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, resulting in cell death. Important, however, is the demonstration that increasing actin dynamics, either by a specific actin allele or by deletion of a gene encoding the actin-bundling protein Scp1p, can increase lifespan by over 65%. Increased longevity appears to be due to these cells producing lower than wild-type levels of ROS. Homology between Scp1p and mammalian SM22/transgelin, which itself has been isolated in senescence screens, suggests a conserved mechanism linking aging to actin stability.

Direct interaction of beta-dystroglycan with F-actin.

Dystroglycans are essential transmembrane adhesion receptors for laminin. Alpha-dystroglycan is a highly glycosylated extracellular protein that interacts with laminin in the extracellular matrix and the transmembrane region of beta-dystroglycan. Beta-dystroglycan, via its cytoplasmic tail, interacts with dystrophin and utrophin and also with the actin cytoskeleton. As a part of the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex of muscles, dystroglycan is also important in maintaining sarcolemmal integrity. Mutations in dystrophin that lead to Duchenne muscular dystrophy also lead to a loss of dystroglycan from the sarcolemma, and chimaeric mice lacking muscle dystroglycan exhibit a severe muscular dystrophy phenotype. Using yeast two-hybrid analysis and biochemical and cell biological studies, we show, in the present study, that the cytoplasmic tail of beta-dystroglycan interacts directly with F-actin and, furthermore, that it bundles actin filaments and induces an aberrant actin phenotype when overexpressed in cells.

SCP1 encodes an actin-bundling protein in yeast.

The association of F-actin (filamentous actin) with a large number of binding proteins is essential for cellular function. Actin-binding proteins control the dynamics of actin filaments, nucleate new filaments and facilitate formation of higher-order structures such as actin bundles. The yeast gene SCP1 encodes a small protein with significant homology to mammalian SM22/transgelin. We have investigated the role of Scp1p in budding yeast to probe the fundamental role of this family of proteins. Here, we demonstrate that Scp1p binds to F-actin and induces the formation of tight F-actin bundles in vitro. Deletion of SCP1 in yeast lacking the actin-bundling protein, fimbrin (Sac6p), exacerbates the disrupted actin phenotype and enhances latrunculin-A sensitivity. Furthermore, Scp1p co-localizes with actin in cortical patches and its localization is lost in the presence of latrunculin-A. Our data support a role for Scp1p in bundling actin filaments and, in concert with Sac6p, acting as a second actin-bundling activity crucial to the stability of the yeast actin cytoskeleton.

Structural insights into actin-binding, branching and bundling proteins.

Structural advances in our understanding of the functions of the actin cytoskeleton have come from diverse sources. On the one hand, the determination of the structure of a bacterial actin-like protein MreB reveals the prokaryotic origins of the actin cytoskeleton, whereas on the other, cryo-electron microscopy and crystallography have yielded reconstructions of many actin crosslinking, regulatory and binding proteins in complex with F-actin. Not least, a high-resolution structure of the Arp2/3 complex and a reconstruction with F-actin provides considerable insight into the eukaryotic machinery, vital for the formation of new F-actin barbed ends, a prerequisite for rapid actin polymerisation involved in cell shape change and motility.

Muscular dystrophies, the cytoskeleton and cell adhesion.

Muscular dystrophies are associated with mutations in genes encoding several classes of proteins. These range from extracellular matrix and integral membrane proteins to cytoskeletal proteins, but also include a heterogeneous group of proteins including proteases, nuclear proteins, and signalling molecules. Muscular dystrophy phenotypes have also become evident in studies on various knockout mice defective in proteins not previously considered or known to be mutated in muscular dystrophies. Some unifying themes are beginning to emerge from all of these data. This review will consider recent advances in our understanding of the molecules involved and bring together data that suggest a role for the cytoskeleton and cell adhesion in muscular dystrophies.

Towards a complete atomic structure of spectrin family proteins.

The spectrin family of proteins represents a discrete group of cytoskeletal proteins comprising principally alpha-actinin, spectrin, dystrophin, and homologues and isoforms. They all share three main structural and functional motifs, namely, the spectrin repeat, EF-hands, and a CH domain-containing actin-binding domain. These proteins are variously involved in organisation of the actin cytoskeleton, membrane cytoskeleton architecture, cell adhesion, and contractile apparatus. The highly modular nature of these molecules has been a hindrance to the determination of their complete structures due to the inherent flexibility imparted on the proteins, but has also been an asset, inasmuch as the individual modules were of a size amenable to structural analysis by both crystallographic and NMR approaches. Representative structures of all the major domains shared by spectrin family proteins have now been solved at atomic resolution, including in some cases multiple domains from several family members. High-resolution structures, coupled with lower resolution methods to determine the overall molecular shape of these proteins, allow us for the first time to build complete atomic structures of the spectrin family of proteins.

Functional plasticity of CH domains.

With the refinement of algorithms for the identification of distinct motifs from sequence databases, especially those using secondary structure predictions, new protein modules have been determined in recent years. Calponin homology (CH) domains were identified in a variety of proteins ranging from actin cross-linking to signaling and have been proposed to function either as autonomous actin binding motifs or serve a regulatory function. Despite the overall structural conservation of the unique CH domain fold, the individual modules display a quite striking functional variability. Analysis of the actopaxin/parvin protein family suggests the existence of novel (type 4 and type 5) CH domain families which require special attention, as they appear to be a good example for how CH domains may function as scaffolds for other functional motifs of different properties.

Solution structure of the calponin CH domain and fitting to the 3D-helical reconstruction of F-actin:calponin.

Calponin is involved in the regulation of contractility and organization of the actin cytoskeleton in smooth muscle cells. It is the archetypal member of the calponin homology (CH) domain family of actin binding proteins that includes cytoskeletal linkers such as alpha-actinin, spectrin, and dystrophin, and regulatory proteins including VAV, IQGAP, and calponin. We have determined the first structure of a CH domain from a single CH domain-containing protein, that of calponin, and have fitted the NMR-derived coordinates to the 3D-helical reconstruction of the F-actin:calponin complex using cryo-electron microscopy. The tertiary fold of this single CH domain is typical of, yet significantly different from, those of the CH domains that occur in tandem pairs to form high-affinity ABDs in other proteins. We thus provide a structural insight into the mode of interaction between F-actin and CH domain-containing proteins.

The WW domain: linking cell signalling to the membrane cytoskeleton.

The WW domain is one of the smallest yet most versatile protein-protein interaction modules. The ability of this simple domain to interact with a number of proline-containing ligands has resulted in a great deal of functional diversity. Most recently it has been shown that WW domain interactions can also be differentially regulated by tyrosine phosphorylation. Here we briefly review WW domain ligands and structure in comparison to SH3 domain ligands and structure and discuss recent findings with regard to the regulation of WW domain interactions by phosphorylation. In particular we describe the potential for differential binding of the b-dystroglycan WW domain ligand by dystrophin or caveolin-3 in skeletal muscle and show how this could act as a switch to alter the relative affinity of the muscle dystroglycan complex for caveolin-3 or dystrophin and utrophin.