Highlights d Mammalian NSCs utilize vimentin-caged aggresomes to recover proteostasis d Vimentin is required for proteasome localization to the aggresome in NSCs d Quiescent NSCs upregulate vimentin protein and utilize aggresomes during activation d Vimentin knockout in NSCs impairs proteostasis recovery and delays quiescence exit
Neural stem cells (NSCs) in the adult brain are primarily quiescent but can activate and enter the cell cycle to produce newborn neurons. NSC quiescence can be regulated by disease, injury, and age, however our understanding of NSC quiescence is limited by technical limitations imposed by the bias of markers used to isolate each population of NSCs and the lack of live-cell labeling strategies. Fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) of autofluorescent metabolic cofactors has previously been used in other cell types to study shifts in cell states driven by metabolic remodeling that change the optical properties of these endogenous fluorophores. Here we asked whether autofluorescence could be used to discriminate NSC activation state. We found that quiescent NSCs (qNSCs) and activated NSCs (aNSCs) each have unique autofluorescence intensity and fluorescence lifetime profiles. Additionally, qNSCs specifically display an enrichment of a specific autofluorescent signal localizing to lysosomes that is highly predictive of cell state. These signals can be used as a graded marker of NSC quiescence to predict cell behavior and track the dynamics of quiescence exit at single cell resolution in vitro and in vivo. Through coupling autofluorescence imaging with single-cell RNA sequencing in vitro and in vivo, we provide a high-resolution resource revealing transcriptional features linked to rapid NSC activation and deep quiescence. Taken together, we describe a single-cell resolution, non-destructive, live-cell, label-free strategy for measuring NSC activation state in vitro and in vivo and use this tool to expand our understanding of adult neurogenesis.
The aggresome is a protein turnover system in which proteins are trafficked along microtubules to the centrosome for degradation. Despite extensive focus on aggresomes in immortalized cell lines, it remains unclear if the aggresome is conserved in all primary cells and all cell-states. Here we examined the aggresome in primary adult mouse dermal fibroblasts shifted into four distinct cell-states. We found that in response to proteasome inhibition, quiescent and immortalized fibroblasts formed aggresomes, whereas proliferating and senescent fibroblasts did not. Using this model, we generated a resource to provide a characterization of the proteostasis networks in which the aggresome is used and transcriptomic features associated with the presence or absence of aggresome formation. Using this resource, we validate a previously reported role for p38 MAPK signaling in aggresome formation and identify TAK1 as a novel driver of aggresome formation upstream of p38 MAPKs. Together, our data demonstrate that the aggresome is a non-universal protein degradation system which can be used cell-state specifically and provide a resource for studying aggresome formation and function.
The aggresome is a protein turnover system in which proteins are trafficked along microtubules to the centrosome for degradation. Despite extensive focus on aggresomes in immortalized cell lines, it remains unclear if the aggresome is conserved in all primary cells and all cell-states. Here we examined the aggresome in primary adult mouse dermal fibroblasts in four distinct cell-states. We found that in response to proteasome inhibition, quiescent and immortalized fibroblasts formed aggresomes whereas proliferating and senescent fibroblasts did not. Transcriptomic analysis of the fibroblast cell-state-specific response to proteasome inhibition revealed that stress-activated MAPK signaling was associated with aggresome formation. Supporting a functional role for stress-activated MAPK signaling in aggresome formation, inhibition of TAK1 and p38α/β MAPKs suppressed aggresome formation. Together, our data suggest that the aggresome is a non-universal protein degradation system that forms through stress-activated MAPK signaling which can be used cell-state specifically.
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