Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2D (LGMD 2D) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in the α-sarcoglycan gene. To determine how α-sarcoglycan deficiency leads to muscle fiber degeneration, we generated and analyzed α-sarcoglycan– deficient mice. Sgca-null mice developed progressive muscular dystrophy and, in contrast to other animal models for muscular dystrophy, showed ongoing muscle necrosis with age, a hallmark of the human disease. Sgca-null mice also revealed loss of sarcolemmal integrity, elevated serum levels of muscle enzymes, increased muscle masses, and changes in the generation of absolute force. Molecular analysis of Sgca-null mice demonstrated that the absence of α-sarcoglycan resulted in the complete loss of the sarcoglycan complex, sarcospan, and a disruption of α-dystroglycan association with membranes. In contrast, no change in the expression of ε-sarcoglycan (α-sarcoglycan homologue) was observed. Recombinant α-sarcoglycan adenovirus injection into Sgca-deficient muscles restored the sarcoglycan complex and sarcospan to the membrane. We propose that the sarcoglycan–sarcospan complex is requisite for stable association of α-dystroglycan with the sarcolemma. The Sgca-deficient mice will be a valuable model for elucidating the pathogenesis of sarcoglycan deficient limb-girdle muscular dystrophies and for the development of therapeutic strategies for this disease.
The dystrophin–glycoprotein complex (DGC) is a multisubunit complex that spans the muscle plasma membrane and forms a link between the F-actin cytoskeleton and the extracellular matrix. The proteins of the DGC are structurally organized into distinct subcomplexes, and genetic mutations in many individual components are manifested as muscular dystrophy. We recently identified a unique tetraspan-like dystrophin-associated protein, which we have named sarcospan (SPN) for its multiple sarcolemma spanning domains (Crosbie, R.H., J. Heighway, D.P. Venzke, J.C. Lee, and K.P. Campbell. 1997. J. Biol. Chem. 272:31221–31224). To probe molecular associations of SPN within the DGC, we investigated SPN expression in normal muscle as a baseline for comparison to SPN's expression in animal models of muscular dystrophy. We show that, in addition to its sarcolemma localization, SPN is enriched at the myotendinous junction (MTJ) and neuromuscular junction (NMJ), where it is a component of both the dystrophin– and utrophin–glycoprotein complexes. We demonstrate that SPN is preferentially associated with the sarcoglycan (SG) subcomplex, and this interaction is critical for stable localization of SPN to the sarcolemma, NMJ, and MTJ. Our experiments indicate that assembly of the SG subcomplex is a prerequisite for targeting SPN to the sarcolemma. In addition, the SG– SPN subcomplex functions to stabilize α-dystroglycan to the muscle plasma membrane. Taken together, our data provide important information about assembly and function of the SG–SPN subcomplex.
Missense mutations in the Leucine-Rich Repeat protein Kinase 2 (LRRK2) gene are the most common genetic predisposition to develop Parkinson’s disease (PD) (Farrer et al., 2005; Skipper et al., 2005; Di Fonzo et al., 2006; Healy et al., 2008; Paisan-Ruiz et al., 2008; Lesage et al., 2010). LRRK2 is a large multi-domain phosphoprotein with a GTPase domain and a serine/threonine protein kinase domain whose activity is implicated in neuronal toxicity; however the precise mechanism is unknown. LRRK2 autophosphorylates on several serine/threonine residues across the enzyme and is found constitutively phosphorylated on Ser910, Ser935, Ser955, and Ser973, which are proposed to be regulated by upstream kinases. Here we investigate the phosphoregulation at these sites by analyzing the effects of disease-associated mutations Arg1441Cys, Arg1441Gly, Ala1442Pro, Tyr1699Cys, Ile2012Thr, Gly2019Ser, and Ile2020Thr. We also studied alanine substitutions of phosphosite serines 910, 935, 955, and 973 and specific LRRK2 inhibition on autophosphorylation of LRRK2 Ser1292, Thr1491, Thr2483 and phosphorylation at the cellular sites. We found that mutants in the Roc-COR domains, including Arg1441Cys, Arg1441His, Ala1442Pro, and Tyr1699Cys, can positively enhance LRRK2 kinase activity, while concomitantly inducing the dephosphorylation of the cellular sites. Mutation of the cellular sites individually did not affect LRRK2 intrinsic kinase activity; however, Ser910/935/955/973Ala mutations trended toward increased kinase activity of LRRK2. Increased cAMP levels did not lead to increased LRRK2 cellular site phosphorylation, 14-3-3 binding or kinase activity. In cells, inhibition of LRRK2 kinase activity leads to dephosphorylation of Ser1292 by Calyculin A and Okadaic acid sensitive phosphatases, while the cellular sites are dephosphorylated by Calyculin A sensitive phosphatases. These findings indicate that comparative analysis of both Ser1292 and Ser910/935/955/973 phosphorylation sites will provide important and distinct measures of LRRK2 kinase and biological activity in vitro and in vivo.
Syndecan-1 is a transmembrane haparan sulphate proteoglycan that binds extracellular matrices and growth factors, making it a candidate to act between these regulatory molecules and intracellular signalling pathways. It has a highly conserved transmembrane/cytoplasmic domain that contains four conserved tyrosines. One of these is in a consensus sequence for tyrosine kinase phosphorylation. As an initial step to investigating whether or not phosphorylation of these tyrosines is part of a signal-transduction pathway, we have monitored the tyrosine phosphorylation of syndecan-1 by cytoplasmic tyrosine kinases in intact cells. Tyrosine phosphorylation of syndecan-1 is observed when NMuMG cells are treated with sodium orthovanadate or pervanadate, which have been shown to activate intracellular tyrosine kinases. Initial studies with sodium orthovanadate demonstrate a slow accumulation of phosphotyrosine on syndecan-1 over the course of several hours. Pervanadate, a more effective inhibitor of phosphatases, allows detection of phosphotyrosine on syndecan-1 within 5 min, with peak phosphorylation seen by 15 min. Concurrently, in a second process activated by pervanadate, syndecan-1 ectodomain is cleaved and released into the culture medium. Two phosphorylated fragments of syndecan-1 of apparent sizes 6 and 8 kDa remain with the cell after shedding of the ectodomain. The 8 kDa size class appears to be a highly phosphorylated form of the 6 kDa product, as it disappears if samples are dephosphorylated. These fragments contain the C-terminus of syndecan-1 and also retain at least a portion of the transmembrane domain, suggesting that they are produced by a cell surface cleavage event. Thus pervanadate treatment of cells results in two effects of syndecan-1: (i) phosphorylation of one or more of its tyrosines via the action of a cytoplasmic kinase(s) and (ii) cleavage and release of the ectodomain into the medium, producing a C-terminal fragment containing the transmembrane/cytoplasmic domain.
The physiological relevance of Matrigel as a cell-culture substrate and in angiogenesis assays is often called into question. Here, we describe an array-based method for the identification of synthetic hydrogels that promote the formation of robust in vitro vascular networks for the detection of putative vascular disruptors, and that support human embryonic stem cell expansion and pluripotency. We identified hydrogel substrates that promoted endothelial-network formation by primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells and by endothelial cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells, and used the hydrogels with endothelial networks to identify angiogenesis inhibitors. The synthetic hydrogels show superior sensitivity and reproducibility over Matrigel when evaluating known inhibitors, as well as in a blinded screen of a subset of 38 chemicals, selected according to predicted vascular disruption potential, from the Toxicity ForeCaster library of the US Environmental Protection Agency. The identified synthetic hydrogels should be suitable alternatives to Matrigel for common cell-culture applications.
The expansion of kinase assay technologies over the past decade has mirrored the growing interest in kinases as drug targets. As a result, there is no shortage of convenient, fluorescence-based methods available to assay targets that span the kinome. The authors recently reported on the development of a non-activity-based assay to characterize kinase inhibitors that depended on displacement of an Alexa Fluor 647 conjugate of staurosporine (a "tracer") from a particular kinase. Kinase inhibitors were characterized by a change in fluorescence lifetime of the tracer when it was bound to a kinase relative to when it was displaced by an inhibitor. Here, the authors report on improvements to this strategy by reconfiguring the assay in a time-resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer (TR-FRET) format that simplifies instrumentation requirements and allows for the use of a substantially lower concentration of kinase than was required in the fluorescence-lifetime-based format. The authors use this new assay to demonstrate several aspects of the binding assay format that are advantageous relative to traditional activity-based assays. The TR-FRET binding format facilitates the assay of compounds against lowactivity kinases, allows for the characterization of type II kinase inhibitors either using nonactivated kinases or by monitoring compound potency over time, and ensures that the signal being detected is specific to the kinase of interest and not a contaminating kinase. (Journal of Biomolecular Screening 2009:924-935)
Sarcospan is an integral membrane component of the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex (DGC) found at the sarcolemma of striated and smooth muscle. The DGC plays important roles in muscle function and viability as evidenced by defects in components of the DGC, which cause muscular dystrophy. Sarcospan is unique among the components of the complex in that it contains four transmembrane domains with intracellular Nand C-terminal domains and is a member of the tetraspan superfamily of proteins. Sarcospan is tightly linked to the sarcoglycans, and together these proteins form a subcomplex within the DGC. Stable expression of sarcospan at the sarcolemma is dependent upon expression of the sarcoglycans. Here we describe the generation and analysis of mice carrying a null mutation in the Sspn gene. Surprisingly, the Sspn-deficient muscle maintains expression of other components of the DGC at the sarcolemma, and no gross histological abnormalities of muscle from the mice are observed. The Sspn-deficient muscle maintains sarcolemmal integrity as determined by serum creatine kinase and Evans blue uptake assays, and the Sspn-deficient muscle maintains normal force and power generation capabilities. These data suggest either that sarcospan is not required for normal DGC function or that the Sspn-deficient muscle is compensating for the absence of sarcospan, perhaps by utilizing another protein to carry out its function.The dystrophin-glycoprotein complex (DGC) is a multisubunit protein complex composed of integral membrane, peripheral membrane, and cytoplasmic proteins expressed at the sarcolemma of striated muscle fibers (see references 7, 41, 54, and 62 for reviews). Isolation and cloning of proteins within this complex have provided key insights into the function of the DGC and its role in normal muscle physiology. The skeletal muscle DGC is composed of dystrophin (9, 31); the syntrophins (22); ␣-and -dystroglycan (33); ␣-, -, ␥-, and ␦-sarcoglycan (3, 36, 42, 48, 50, 51, 55, 56); and sarcospan (14). Recently, the DGC within smooth muscle fibers has been characterized (64). This complex differs from the striated muscle DGC in at least two respects. First, ε-sarcoglycan replaces ␣-sarcoglycan within the sarcoglycan subcomplex, and second, differences occur in the glycosylation pattern of ␣-dystroglycan in the smooth muscle DGC.One likely function of the DGC is to provide a structural link between the extracellular matrix and the actin cytoskeleton, thereby maintaining the stability of the sarcolemma under contractile forces (10, 21). This link occurs through dystrophin, which binds to filamentous actin (31, 58, 59), and dystroglycan-with its -subunit binding to dystrophin (37) and its ␣-subunit interacting with the extracellular matrix component laminin-2 (24). The DGC likely plays other roles in normal muscle physiology by interacting with cell signaling molecules or other proteins at the sarcolemma. The skeletal muscle DGC has been the most fully characterized in this respect, and several laboratories have demonstrated i...
Abstract. Syndecan-1 is a cell surface proteoglycan containing a highly conserved transmembrane and cytoplasmic domain, and an extracellular domain bearing heparan sulfate glycosaminoglycans. Through these domains, syndecan-1 is proposed to have roles in growth factor action, extracellular matrix adhesion, and cytoskeletal organization that controls cell morphology. To study the role of syndecan-1 in cell adhesion and cytoskeleton reorganization, mouse syndecan-1 cDNA was transfected into human Raji cells, a lymphoblastoid cell line that grows as suspended cells and exhibits little or no endogenous cell surface heparan sulfate. High expressing transfectants (Raji-S1 cells) bind to and spread on immobilized thrombospondin or fibronectin, which are ligands for the heparan sulfate chains of the proteoglycan. This binding and spreading is not dependent on the cytoplasmic domain of the core protein, as mutants expressing core proteins with cytoplasmic deletions maintain the ability to spread. The spreading is mediated through engagement of the syndecan-1 core protein, as the Raji-S1 cells also bind to and spread on immobilized mAb 281.2, an antibody specific for the ectodomain of the syndecan-1 core protein. Spreading on the antibody is independent of the heparan sulfate glycosaminoglycan chains and can be inhibited by competition with soluble mAb 281.2. The spreading can be inhibited by treatment with cytochalasin D or colchicine. These data suggest that the core protein of syndecan-1 mediates spreading through the formation of a multimolecular signaling complex at the cell surface that signals cytoskeleton reorganization. This complex may form via intramembrane or extracellular interactions with the syndecan core protein.
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