The actin cytoskeleton plays multiple roles in structural colour formation in butterfly wing scales.

Vivid structural colours in butterflies are caused by photonic nanostructures scattering light. Structural colours evolved for numerous biological signalling functions and have important technological applications. Optically, such structures are well understood, however insight into their development in vivo remains scarce. We show that actin is intimately involved in structural colour formation in butterfly wing scales. Using comparisons between iridescent (structurally coloured) and non-iridescent scales in adult and developing H. sara, we show that iridescent scales have more densely packed actin bundles leading to an increased density of reflective ridges. Super-resolution microscopy across three distantly related butterfly species reveals that actin is repeatedly re-arranged during scale development and crucially when the optical nanostructures are forming. Furthermore, actin perturbation experiments at these later developmental stages resulted in near total loss of structural colour in H. sara. Overall, this shows that actin plays a vital and direct templating role during structural colour formation in butterfly scales, providing ridge patterning mechanisms that are likely universal across lepidoptera.

PDEδ inhibition impedes the proliferation and survival of human colorectal cancer cell lines harboring oncogenic KRas.

Ras proteins, most notably KRas, are prevalent oncogenes in human cancer. Plasma membrane localization and thereby signaling of KRas is regulated by the prenyl-binding protein PDEδ. Recently, we have reported the specific anti-proliferative effects of PDEδ inhibition in KRas-dependent human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cell lines. Here, we investigated the proliferative dependence on the solubilizing activity of PDEδ of human colorectal cancer (CRC) cell lines with or without oncogenic KRas mutations. Our results show that genetic and pharmacologic interference with PDEδ specifically inhibits proliferation and survival of CRC cell lines harboring oncogenic KRas mutations whereas isogenic cell lines in which the KRas oncogene has been removed, or cell lines with oncogenic BRaf mutations or EGFR overexpression are not dependent on PDEδ. Pharmacological PDEδ inhibition is therefore a possible new avenue to target oncogenic KRas bearing CRC.

Assay to visualize specific protein oxidation reveals spatio-temporal regulation of SHP2.

Reactive oxygen species are produced transiently in response to cell stimuli, and function as second messengers that oxidize target proteins. Protein-tyrosine phosphatases are important reactive oxygen species targets, whose oxidation results in rapid, reversible, catalytic inactivation. Despite increasing evidence for the importance of protein-tyrosine phosphatase oxidation in signal transduction, the cell biological details of reactive oxygen species-catalyzed protein-tyrosine phosphatase inactivation have remained largely unclear, due to our inability to visualize protein-tyrosine phosphatase oxidation in cells. By combining proximity ligation assay with chemical labeling of cysteine residues in the sulfenic acid state, we visualize oxidized Src homology 2 domain-containing protein-tyrosine phosphatase 2 (SHP2). We find that platelet-derived growth factor evokes transient oxidation on or close to RAB5+/ early endosome antigen 1- endosomes. SHP2 oxidation requires NADPH oxidases (NOXs), and oxidized SHP2 co-localizes with platelet-derived growth factor receptor and NOX1/4. Our data demonstrate spatially and temporally limited protein oxidation within cells, and suggest that platelet-derived growth factor-dependent "redoxosomes," contribute to proper signal transduction.Protein-tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) are thought to be major targets of receptor-activated reactive oxygen species (ROS). Here the authors describe a method that allows the localized visualization of oxidized intermediates of PTPs inside cells during signaling, and provide support for the "redoxosome" model.

FGFR3 preferentially colocalizes with IGH in the interphase nucleus of multiple myeloma patient B-cells when FGFR3 is located outside of CT4.

Many B-cell malignancies are characterized by chromosomal translocations involving IGH and a proto-oncogene. For translocations to occur, spatial proximity of translocation-prone genes is necessary. Currently, it is not known how such genes are brought into proximity with one another. Although decondensed chromosomes occupy definitive, non-random spaces in the interphase nucleus known as chromosome territories (CTs), chromatin at the edges of CTs can intermingle, and specific genomic regions from some chromosomes have been shown to "loop out" of their respective CTs. This extra-territorial positioning of specific genomic regions may provide a mechanism whereby translocation-prone genes are brought together in the interphase nucleus. FGFR3 and MAF recurrently participate in translocations with IGH at different frequencies. Using 3D, 4-color FISH, and 3D analysis software, we show frequent extra-territorial positioning of FGFR3 and significantly less frequent extra-territorial positioning of MAF. Frequent extra-territorial positioning may be characteristic of FGFR3 in B-cells from healthy adult donors and non-malignant B-cells from patients, but not in hematopoietic stem cells from patients with translocations. The frequency of extra-territorial positioning of FGFR3 and MAF in B-cells correlates with the frequency of translocations in the patient population. Most importantly, in patient B-cells, we demonstrate a significant proportion of extra-territorial FGFR3 participating in close loci pairs and/or colocalizing with IGH. This preliminary work suggests that in patient B-cells, extra-territorial positioning of FGFR3 may provide a mechanism for forming close loci pairs and/or colocalization with IGH; indirectly facilitating translocation events involving these two genes. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Highly Multiplexed Imaging Uncovers Changes in Compositional Noise within Assembling Focal Adhesions.

Integrin adhesome proteins bind each other in alternative manners, forming within the cell diverse cell-matrix adhesion sites with distinct properties. An intriguing question is how such modular assembly of adhesion sites is achieved correctly solely by self-organization of their components. Here we address this question using high-throughput multiplexed imaging of eight proteins and two phosphorylation sites in a large number of single focal adhesions. We found that during the assembly of focal adhesions the variances of protein densities decrease while the correlations between them increase, suggesting reduction in the noise levels within these structures. These changes correlate independently with the area and internal density of focal adhesions, but not with their age or shape. Artificial neural network analysis indicates that a joint consideration of multiple components improves the predictability of paxillin and zyxin levels in internally dense focal adhesions. This suggests that paxillin and zyxin densities in focal adhesions are fine-tuned by integrating the levels of multiple other components, thus averaging-out stochastic fluctuations. Based on these results we propose that increase in internal protein densities facilitates noise suppression in focal adhesions, while noise suppression enables their stable growth and further density increase-hence forming a feedback loop giving rise to a quality-controlled assembly.

Differential nuclear organization of translocation-prone genes in nonmalignant B cells from patients with t(14;16) as compared with t(4;14) or t(11;14) myeloma.

Gene organization in nonmalignant B cells from t(4;14) and t(11;14) multiple myeloma (MM) patients differs from that of healthy donors. Among recurrent IGH translocations in MM, the frequency of t(4;14) (IGH and FGFR3) or t(11;14) (IGH and CCND1) is greater than the frequency of t(14;16) (IGH and MAF). Gene organization in t(14;16) patients may influence translocation potential of MAF with IGH. In patients, three-dimensional FISH revealed the positions of IGH, CCND1, FGFR3, and MAF in nonmalignant B cells that are likely similar to those when MM first arose, compared with B cells from healthy donors. Overall, IGH occupies a more central nuclear position while MAF is more peripherally located. However, for B cells from t(4;14) and t(11;14) patients, IGH and FGFR3, or IGH and CCND1 are found in spatial proximity: IGH and MAF are not. This differs in B cells from t(14;16) patients and healthy donors where IGH is approximately equidistant to FGFR3, CCND1, and MAF, suggesting that gene organization in t(14;16) patients is different from that in t(4;14) or t(11;14) patients. Translocations between IGH and MAF may arise only in the absence of close proximity to the more frequent partners, as appears to be the case for individuals who develop t(14;16) MM.

Differential positioning and close spatial proximity of translocation-prone genes in nonmalignant B-cells from multiple myeloma patients.

Accumulating evidence suggests that spatial proximity of potential chromosomal translocation partners influences translocation probability. It is not known, however, whether genome organization differs in nonmalignant cells from patients as compared to their cellular counterparts from healthy donors. This could contribute to translocation potential causing cancer. Multiple myeloma is a hematopoietic cancer of the B-lineage, characterized by karyotypic instability, including chromosomal translocations involving the IGH locus and several translocation partners. Utilizing 3-D FISH and confocal imaging, we investigate whether nuclear spatial positioning of the translocation-prone gene loci, IGH, FGFR3, and CCND1 differs in nonmalignant cell subsets from multiple myeloma patients as compared to positioning in their corresponding healthy donor cell subsets. 3-D analysis software was used to determine the spatial proximity of potential translocation pairs and the radial distribution of each gene. We observed that in all cell subsets, the translocation-prone gene loci are intermediately located in the nucleus, while a control locus occupies a more peripheral position. In nonmalignant B-cells from multiple myeloma patients, however, the translocation-prone gene loci display a more central nuclear position and close spatial proximity. Our results demonstrate that gene positioning in nonmalignant B-cells from multiple myeloma patients differs from that in healthy donors, potentially contributing to translocation probability in patient cells. We speculate that genome reorganization in patient B-cells may closely reflect gene positioning at the time the multiple myeloma-specific translocation initially formed, thus influencing translocation probability between proximal loci in the B-cell population from which the malignancy emerged.

Translocation frequencies and chromosomal proximities for selected mouse chromosomes in primary B lymphocytes.

Chromosome positions within the nucleus of mammalian cells are nonrandom and it is assumed that chromosomal neighborhoods affect the probability of translocations. Four chromosomes can be involved in c-myc-activating chromosomal translocations in mouse plasmacytoma (PCT): the c-myc gene on mouse chromosome 15 can be juxtaposed to either one of the immunoglobulin (Ig) loci on chromosomes 12 (IgH), 16 (Igλ), or 6 (Igκ). In the BALB/c mouse, the translocation between chromosomes 12 and 15, T(12;15), is most common (90%) while the other two possible translocations, T(6;15) and T(16;15), are much less common (<10%). In contrast, in the BALB/cRb6.15 mouse, T(6;15) is found with the same frequency as T(12;15). We, therefore, examined the distance between chromosomes 15 and 12, 6, and 16 in primary mouse B lymphocytes in order to examine the effect of the chromosome proximity on the translocation frequency. We performed three-dimensional fluorescent in situ hybridization (3D-FISH) with chromosome paints. We acquired three-dimensional image stacks with 90 slices per stack and used constrained iterative deconvolution. The nucleus and chromosomes were segmented from this image stack and the interchromosomal distances were measured. Chromosomes 6 and 15 were found in close proximity in BALB/cRb6.15 mice (82%), whereas they did not share this neighborhood relationship in BALB/c mice. No other chromosome combinations showed such a high percentage of close proximities in either mouse strain. Chromosome positions contribute to translocation frequencies in mouse PCTs. The BALB/cRb6.15 mouse data argue for a proximity relationship of chromosomes that engage in illegitimate recombination. These positions are not, however, the only contributing factor as the T(12;15) translocation preference in BALB/c mice could not be supported by significantly elevated proximity of chromosomes 12 and 15 versus 12 and 16 or 12 and 6. Moreover, while there is a significant increase in T(6;15) in BALB/cRb6.15 mice, T(12;15) still occurs in this mouse strain.

Centromeres in cell division, evolution, nuclear organization and disease.

As the spindle fiber attachment region of the chromosome, the centromere has been investigated in a variety of contexts. Here, we will review current knowledge about this unique chromosomal region and its relevance for proper cell division, speciation, and disease. Understanding the three-dimensional organization of centromeres in normal and tumor cells is just beginning to emerge. Multidisciplinary research will allow for new insights into its normal and aberrant nuclear organization and may allow for new therapeutic interventions that target events linked to centromere function and cell division.