In myelinated fibers of the vertebrate nervous system, glial-ensheathing cells interact with axons at specialized adhesive junctions, the paranodal septate-like junctions. The axonal proteins paranodin/Caspr and contactin form a cis complex in the axolemma at the axoglial adhesion zone, and both are required to stabilize the junction. There has been intense speculation that an oligodendroglial isoform of the cell adhesion molecule neurofascin, NF155, expressed at the paranodal loop might be the glial receptor for the paranodin/Caspr-contactin complex, particularly since paranodin/Caspr and NF155 colocalize to ectopic sites in the CNS of the dysmyelinated mouse Shiverer mutant. We report that the extracellular domain of NF155 binds specifically to transfected cells expressing the paranodin/Caspr-contactin complex at the cell surface. This region of NF155 also binds the paranodin/Caspr-contactin complex from brain lysates in vitro. In support of the functional significance of this interaction, NF155 antibodies and the extracellular domain of NF155 inhibit myelination in myelinating cocultures, presumably by blocking the adhesive relationship between the axon and glial cell. These results demonstrate that the paranodin/Caspr-contactin complex interacts biochemically with NF155 and that this interaction is likely to be biologically relevant at the axoglial junction.
Caspr/paranodin, a neuronal transmembrane glycoprotein, is essential for the structure and function of septate-like paranodal axoglial junctions at nodes of Ranvier. A closely related protein, Caspr2, is concentrated in juxtaparanodal regions where it associates indirectly with the shaker-type potassium channels. Although ultrastructural studies indicate that paranodal complexes are linked to the cytoskeleton, the intracellular partners of Caspr/paranodin, as well as those of Caspr2, are poorly characterized. We show that the conserved intracellular juxtamembrane regions (GNP motif) of Caspr/paranodin and Caspr2 bind proteins 4.1R and 4.1B. 4.1B is known to be enriched in paranodal and juxtaparanodal regions. 4.1B immunoreactivity accumulates progressively at paranodes and juxtaparanodes during postnatal development, following the concentration of Caspr/paranodin and Caspr2, respectively, in central and peripheral myelinated axons. These two proteins coimmunoprecipitated with 4.1B in brain homogenates. Our results provide strong evidence for the association of 4.1B with Caspr/paranodin at paranodes and with Caspr2 at juxtaparanodes. We propose that 4.1B anchors these axonal proteins to the actin-based cytoskeleton in these two regions.
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