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
-
- Nerve Tissue Proteins/genetics
- Nerve Tissue Proteins/metabolism*
- Immunoprecipitation
- Hedgehog Proteins/genetics
- Hedgehog Proteins/metabolism
- Dictyostelium
- Neurons/drug effects
- Neurons/physiology*
- Morpholines/pharmacology
- RNA, Small Interfering/genetics
- PAX2 Transcription Factor/genetics
- PAX2 Transcription Factor/metabolism
- Animals
- Apoptosis/drug effects
- Apoptosis/genetics
- Cell Differentiation/drug effects
- Cell Differentiation/genetics
- Guanylate Kinases/genetics
- Guanylate Kinases/metabolism
- Membrane Proteins/antagonists & inhibitors
- Membrane Proteins/genetics
- Membrane Proteins/metabolism*
- Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase-1/pharmacology
- Mice
- Embryo, Mammalian
- Mutation/genetics
- Nestin
- Neuroepithelial Cells/drug effects
- Neuroepithelial Cells/physiology*
- Analysis of Variance
- Transfection
- Cell Adhesion/drug effects
- Cell Adhesion/physiology*
- Hydroxamic Acids/pharmacology
- Nuclear Proteins/genetics
- Nuclear Proteins/metabolism*
- Body Patterning/drug effects
- Body Patterning/genetics
- Zebrafish Proteins/genetics
- Zebrafish Proteins/metabolism
- Animals, Genetically Modified
- Cadherins/genetics
- Cadherins/metabolism*
- Dipeptides/pharmacology
- Wnt1 Protein/genetics
- Wnt1 Protein/metabolism
- Embryonic Stem Cells/drug effects
- Embryonic Stem Cells/metabolism
- Embryo, Nonmammalian
- ADAM Proteins/antagonists & inhibitors
- ADAM Proteins/genetics
- ADAM Proteins/metabolism*
- Intermediate Filament Proteins/genetics
- Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases/antagonists & inhibitors
- Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases/genetics
- Amyloid Precursor Protein Secretases/metabolism*
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental/drug effects
- Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental/genetics
- Cells, Cultured
- Biological Evolution*
- Cerebral Ventricles/cytology
- Cerebral Ventricles/embryology
- Green Fluorescent Proteins/genetics
- Green Fluorescent Proteins/metabolism
- Zebrafish/embryology
- Brain/cytology
- Brain/drug effects
- Brain/embryology
- Brain/metabolism
- Drosophila melanogaster
- NFI Transcription Factors/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.