An evolutionary recent neuroepithelial cell adhesion function of huntingtin implicates ADAM10-Ncadherin
- Authors
- Lo Sardo, V., Zuccato, C., Gaudenzi, G., Vitali, B., Ramos, C., Tartari, M., Myre, M.A., Walker, J.A., Pistocchi, A., Conti, L., Valenza, M., Drung, B., Schmidt, B., Gusella, J., Zeitlin, S., Cotelli, F., and Cattaneo, E.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-120406-1
- Date
- 2012
- Source
- Nature Neuroscience 15(5): 713-721 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Cotelli, Franco
- Keywords
- none
- MeSH Terms
-
- Body Patterning/drug effects
- Body Patterning/genetics
- Dipeptides/pharmacology
- Dictyostelium
- Hydroxamic Acids/pharmacology
- Cadherins/genetics
- Cadherins/metabolism*
- NFI Transcription Factors/metabolism
- Embryo, Mammalian
- Embryonic Stem Cells/drug effects
- Embryonic Stem Cells/metabolism
- Neuroepithelial Cells/drug effects
- Neuroepithelial Cells/physiology*
- Mice
- Cells, Cultured
- Wnt1 Protein/genetics
- Wnt1 Protein/metabolism
- Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
- Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism
- Transfection
- Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase-1/pharmacology
- Biological Evolution*
- Animals, Genetically Modified
- Immunoprecipitation
- Mutation/genetics
- Apoptosis/drug effects
- Apoptosis/genetics
- Hedgehog Proteins/genetics
- Hedgehog Proteins/metabolism
- Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases/antagonists & inhibitors
- Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases/genetics
- Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases/metabolism*
- RNA, Small Interfering/genetics
- Cerebral Ventricles/cytology
- Cerebral Ventricles/embryology
- Embryo, Nonmammalian
- Nerve Tissue Proteins/genetics
- Nerve Tissue Proteins/metabolism*
- Brain/cytology
- Brain/drug effects
- Brain/embryology
- Brain/metabolism
- PAX2 Transcription Factor/genetics
- PAX2 Transcription Factor/metabolism
- Analysis of Variance
- Cell Differentiation/drug effects
- Cell Differentiation/genetics
- Drosophila melanogaster
- Intermediate Filament Proteins/genetics
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental/drug effects
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental/genetics
- Green Fluorescent Proteins/genetics
- Green Fluorescent Proteins/metabolism
- Nestin
- Zebrafish/embryology
- Membrane Proteins/antagonists & inhibitors
- Membrane Proteins/genetics
- Membrane Proteins/metabolism*
- Nuclear Proteins/genetics
- Nuclear Proteins/metabolism*
- Animals
- Cell Adhesion/drug effects
- Cell Adhesion/physiology*
- Morpholines/pharmacology
- Neurons/drug effects
- Neurons/physiology*
- Guanylate Kinases/genetics
- Guanylate Kinases/metabolism
- ADAM Proteins/antagonists & inhibitors
- ADAM Proteins/genetics
- ADAM Proteins/metabolism*
- PubMed
- 22466506 Full text @ Nat. Neurosci.
The Huntington's disease gene product, huntingtin, is indispensable for neural tube formation, but its role is obscure. We studied neurulation in htt-null embryonic stem cells and htt-morpholino zebrafish embryos and found a previously unknown, evolutionarily recent function for this ancient protein. We found that htt was essential for homotypic interactions between neuroepithelial cells; it permitted neurulation and rosette formation by regulating metalloprotease ADAM10 activity and Ncadherin cleavage. This function was embedded in the N terminus of htt and was phenocopied by treatment of htt knockdown zebrafish with an ADAM10 inhibitor. Notably, in htt-null cells, reversion of the rosetteless phenotype occurred only with expression of evolutionarily recent htt heterologues from deuterostome organisms. Conversely, all of the heterologues that we tested, including htt from Drosophila melanogaster and Dictyostelium discoideum, exhibited anti-apoptotic activity. Thus, anti-apoptosis may have been one of htt's ancestral function(s), but, in deuterostomes, htt evolved to acquire a unique regulatory activity for controlling neural adhesion via ADAM10-Ncadherin, with implications for brain evolution and development.