RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The founding member of the EMAP-like protein family is the Echinoderm Microtubule-Associated Protein (EMAP), so-named for its abundance in sea urchin, starfish, and sand dollar eggs. The EMAP-like protein family has five members in mammals (EML1 through EML5) and only one in both Drosophila (ELP-1) and C. elegans (ELP-1). Biochemical studies of sea urchin EMAP and vertebrate EMLs implicate these proteins in the regulation of microtubule stability. So far, however, the physiological function of this protein family remains unknown. RESULTS: We examined the expression pattern of C. elegans ELP-1 by means of transgenic gene expression in living embryos and adults, and by immunolocalization with an ELP-1-specific antibody in fixed tissues. In embryos, ELP-1 is expressed in the hypodermis. In larvae and adults, ELP-1 is expressed in the body wall, spermatheca and vulval muscles, intestine, and hypodermal seam cells. In muscle, ELP-1 is associated with adhesion complexes near the cell surface and is bound to a criss-crossing network of microtubules in the cytoplasm. ELP-1 is also expressed in a subset of mechanoreceptor neurons, including the ray neurons in the male tail, microtubule-rich touch receptor neurons, and the six ciliated IL1 neurons. This restricted localization in the nervous system implies that ELP-1 plays a role in mechanotransmission. Consistent with this idea, decreasing ELP-1 expression decreases sensitivity to gentle touch applied to the body wall. CONCLUSION: These data imply that ELP-1 may play an important role during the transmission of forces and signals between the body surface and both muscle cells and touch receptor neurons.
Assuntos
Proteínas de Caenorhabditis elegans/metabolismo , Caenorhabditis elegans/metabolismo , Proteínas Associadas aos Microtúbulos/metabolismo , Microtúbulos/metabolismo , Sequência de Aminoácidos , Animais , Western Blotting , Caenorhabditis elegans/embriologia , Caenorhabditis elegans/genética , Proteínas de Caenorhabditis elegans/genética , Proteínas de Caenorhabditis elegans/fisiologia , Embrião não Mamífero/embriologia , Embrião não Mamífero/metabolismo , Proteínas de Fluorescência Verde/genética , Proteínas de Fluorescência Verde/metabolismo , Microscopia de Fluorescência , Proteínas Associadas aos Microtúbulos/genética , Proteínas Associadas aos Microtúbulos/fisiologia , Dados de Sequência Molecular , Neurônios/metabolismo , Ligação ProteicaRESUMO
Plasma membrane cholesterol is critical for neutrophil chemotaxis, although how cholesterol affects chemotactic signaling pathway has not been clearly delineated. Here we demonstrate that cholesterol was absolutely required for polarized redistribution of key chemotactic mediators in human neutrophils in response to all chemoattractants tested (fMet-Leu-Phe, and the chemokines CXCL1, CXCL8 and CXCL12). In particular, PI3K and phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5 triphosphate (PIP(3)) failed to accumulate at the front and phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) at the back of chemoattractant-stimulated neutrophils after cholesterol depletion. Cholesterol depletion did not affect early chemoattractant signaling events such as G-protein activation, intracellular calcium flux or G-protein-independent endocytosis-linked signaling, including the activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), Hck and Fgr transduced by beta-arrestin. During cell polarization, F-actin assemblies redistributed the cholesterol-rich microdomains and cytoskeleton-anchored proteins, including CD16 and CD44 from the leading edge. These data suggest that spatial polarization of chemotactic mediators is orchestrated by protein:protein interactions that organize cholesterol-rich domains of the plasma membrane.